Doppelgangers in Love
by buffyfaith19
Summary: Femslash. The story is about Katherine and Elena trying to start a life together in spite of the fact that nobody supports them and to make matters worse, there's a new threat to Elena's life that complicates things even more.
1. Chapter 1

**Title: Doppelgangers in Love.**

**Show: Vampire Diaries.**

**Pairing: Elena/Katherine.**

**Rating. K+**

**Summary: This is a femslash version of VD. Meaning, all the girls are presumed to be lesbian. The story is about Katherine and Elena trying to start a life together in spite of the fact that nobody supports them and to make matters worse, there's a new threat to Elena's life that complicates things even more.**

**Authors Notes: I started this story over a year ago. It was right after the scene in which Elena stabs Rebekah before the prom. The story is about Elena/Katherine, but it has a lot of Elena/Rebekah elements in it as well. **

**Disclaimer:I don't own anything. The characters belong to LJ Smith and the CW Television Network.**

**Chapter 1**.

Katherine watched with an amused smile as countless vampires and a few odd werewolves tried to turn Stefan and Damon into their next meal. She happily sat on the balcony, looking in through the window high above their living room.

She took out a fresh ripe apple, opened her mouth, took a nice big bite and continued to laugh as her two favorite brothers fought for their lives. All was going well until, out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Elena walk into the room. She tossed the apple aside, kicked down the window and jumped down into the mass of bodies below.

Kicking aside anything that got in her way, Katherine made it to Elena just as a rather unsavory looking vampire had grabbed her by the neck. She took particular joy in tossing him across the room, smiling as he landed on a large spike on the far wall. She turned back towards Elena, "Well, I should ask what you're doing here, but we both know you can't stay away from the Salvatore's."

"I had no choice. I need Stefan's help with something." Elena said, ducking out of the way of yet another vampire. She steadied herself and shot Katherine one of her patented disapproving looks, "What the hell is going on here anyway? Why aren't you helping them?"

Smiling at Damon fighting off two vampires at once, Katherine couldn't help but smirk, "Perhaps because I don't like them."

"Katherine! We've talked about this." Elena snapped, "They are my friends, so if this is going to work you can't just stand around and watch them die. You might find it amusing, but I don't. So, what are you going to do?"

"Do you really want me to become a goody-goody like you?" Katherine asked bluntly. She quickly put on her delicious smile when faced with Elena's disapproving glare, "No offense, but I think you like me because I'm wild and unpredictable. Besides, no matter what you want to believe, those two are the greatest threat to my life and our future happiness."

"There's not going to be any happiness if you don't help them." Elena said, glaring deep into Katherine's mischievous eyes, "So go on. Do your thing. I'll wait."

"Oh fine." Katherine said, directing Elena towards the door, "but could you please step outside, because I'm not leaving you alone here, so if you want me to help, get out."

"Okay, I'm going."

Katherine followed Elena outside, pushed her up against the wall and kissed her passionately on the lips. Elena responded instantly, quickly wrapping her arms around Katherine, pulling her in close as she kissed her hard and deep.

As they continued to kiss wildly, the door opened and Damon stepped outside with them, "Well, isn't this sweet, the two sisters making out. If I hadn't been part of that a thousand times it would be pretty hot."

"Shut up." Both girls said in unison.

"Awe, isn't that just adorable. You finish each other's sentences. That really is a couple thing. I read it online." Damon said, not even trying to hide the face he was mocking them. "Anyway, thanks for the help in there Katherine. Your death moves closer every day."

Elena stepped in between the two vampires, "Let's not start fighting. It's my fault she wasn't helping. I got caught up with the kissing and stuff and lost track of the time."

"Oh please. Don't make excuses for her." Damon growled, "Lying is not your best skill Elena, so leave it the pros."

"He's right. You don't have to defend me." Katherine said, holding Elena close just to piss Damon off a little more, "I was pretty sure you could handle yourself, but if by chance you couldn't, I was here to save your sorry ass yet again."

"Don't flatter yourself." Damon laughed, "So, when are you two going to stop this charade?"

"What charade?" Elena asked, more than a little annoyed at Damon's inference, "We are together and you need to accept it. Stefan has, so what's your problem?"

Damon walked right up to Elena, "My problem is that I don't see you hooking up with the bad girl. If you like bad boys, you and I would've been together years ago."

"Maybe I like bad girls." Elena said with a smile, pulling Katherine in for another kiss.

"Oh that's enough." Damon said, turning away from yet another public display of affection between the two women.

After Elena had kissed Katherine for way longer than she had intended, she finally pulled away, still smiling at Damon's reaction, "Are you ever going to grow up?"

"I sure as hell hope not." Damon said proudly, "What are you doing here anyway? You have no reason to be here. You wanted your space remember? Well, stop invading mine."

"I'm not here to talk to you. I'm here to talk to your brother." Elena snapped, "You know, the civilized one? Anyway, why were all these things trying to kill you?"

"Are you saying you care?" Damon asked with his trademark smirk.

"About Stefan yes, you, not so much." Elena said with a cute grin, "So what's going on?"

"Well Elena, Stefan pissed off a lot of people during his time with Klaus and we're dealing with the aftermath of that every day now. Not that you even noticed."

"Stop your jabs at Elena." Katherine said, holding back her urge to smack Damon upside the head, "I told you that you were both in danger, but that's not news."

"Stefan is inside, so be my guest." Damon said, before exiting the room.

Elena and Katherine walked into the living room, stepping over the debris as they made their way towards Stefan. Elena let out a sigh at the destruction around her, "I see life's never boring for you."

"No, I don't think I have to worry about that for awhile." Stefan said with the smallest of smiles.

"I came over to talk about Rebekah. Is she still around?"

Stefan leaned back on the sofa, puzzled by the question, "What could you possibly need to talk to her about?"

"It's a long story, but she actually helped me out a couple weeks ago and I wanted to thank her."

"Really?" Stefan said, his curiosity mildly piqued, "I'm pretty close to her and she never mentioned that."

"I'm sure it wasn't a big deal for her." Elena said, "I didn't listen to Katherine and followed her into some crypt and almost got killed. I'm not sure why Rebekah was there, but she took care of the vampire and helped me find Katherine."

"Still not following why you need to talk to her." Stefan said, his permanently perplexed expression coming in quite handy at times like this, "I presume you thanked her then, so what aren't you telling me?"

Katherine looked at Elena, waited patiently for the signal and once Elena nodded she sat down across from Stefan, put her boots up on the coffee table and smiled, "As you can guess, I'm not thrilled with Elena's need to talk to Rebekah either, but she did save Elena so I'm grateful to her for that. The problem is that I couldn't help but do some digging into Rebekah's life and I found out some things that I didn't like and I don't think you will either."

"Okay, I'm not sure what you think you know, but Rebekah is not a threat to anyone in Mystic Falls. She knows this place is off limits."

"Oh I'm not worried about that, not right now at least, but I am worried that she's been in contact with the vampire Klaus feared more than any other, Vidar 'The Butcher of Gothenburg'. I'm sure you know that's not good for anyone."

Stefan got to his feet and stared down at Katherine, "That can't be true. Vidar was killed hundreds of years ago."

Katherine raised her hands as Stefan repeated the exact same words she had just weeks earlier, "That's exactly what I thought, but I have proof that he's alive and I have proof that he's been in contact with Rebekah for the last two months. We need to find out what she's planning. Just how did things end between you two?"

A simple shrug was about all Stefan could muster, "Not great, but not horrible either. I told her we couldn't be together and she accepted it."

"Right, because she's such a sweet understanding girl." Katherine said with an eye roll.

"Actually she is." Stefan stated calmly, "I think we both realized that you can't recapture the past. Whatever we had 90 years ago was gone. I'm still not going to jump to conclusions. Why don't you let me talk to her. I think I have the best chance of getting information out of her."

Katherine laughed, "Um no. You might've been the best choice before you broke it off with her, but now I believe I'm the best choice to talk to her. I can relate to her pain and be comforting and supportive, all the things you can't do right now."

Stefan growled, "Fine, but leave Elena out of it."

"Don't talk about me as if I'm not here." Elena yelled.

Katherine got up and took Elena by the hand, "He's right though. Rebekah is a powerful vampire and if she blames you even a little for her breakup it wouldn't be that farfetched for her to want some revenge, not to mention that little stabbing incident, so she has plenty of reasons to want to hurt you."

"If she wanted me dead she could've killed me in the crypt." Elena repeated, "She was very nice to me. I don't think she's after me at all. Maybe we should be trying to find just what she wants."

"Agreed." Katherine smiled. She waved at Stefan and escorted Elena out of the familiar room.

Once the two girls had left, Stefan literally flew out of the room, up the stairs and barged into Damon's bedroom.

Damon sat up in his bed, only moderately surprised by the intrusion, "Let me guess, seeing Elena with Katherine has made you weepy and you need a hug?"

"Would you shut up." Stefan said, moving closer to his annoying brother, "They are going after Rebekah and I don't think that's a good idea. They also mentioned Vidar. If he's alive then everyone is in danger."

"Why?" Damon asked, barely opening his eyes, "Vidar has no beef with you, it's me he wants dead and if he wants to kill the stupid twins, what do I care."

Stefan lunged at his brother, grabbing him around the throat, "Elena is not going to die because she knew me. I've brought enough death into her life, so she's going to live a nice long happy life and we're going to make sure it happens."

"How long are you going to babysit that ungrateful little bitch?"

Shaking his head at his brother's poor choice of words, Stefan flew into a rage and tossed him clear across the room. He followed quickly, watching as Damon fell from the wall to the floor before kneeling down on his throat, "I get that you're pissed that your attempts to turn good backfired and Elena still didn't want you, but it's time to get over it. I know you still care about her, so stop pouting and let's figure out what to do now."

Damon pushed Stefan off him and slowly got to his feet, "We can't protect her from Vidar. He makes Klaus look human. Are you sure he's alive? Whose word are we going on here?"

"Katherine said she did some research into Rebekah's life and that's when she found out. I have no idea if it's true, but we can't leave it to chance. The problem with Katherine is that she's alot like you, she's careless and that's going to get Elena killed."

"Okay, I'll look into Vidar, you can go spy on the twins."

"Stop calling them that." Stefan yelled, "It's just…just stop."

"It freaks you out doesn't it?" Damon said with a big smile, "Seriously, how far off am I? Elena is Katherine's doppelganger after all."

"Just find Vidar and try not to die doing it."

"That's not a problem." Damon said confidently, walking out of the room with his usual swagger.

**Elena's home**.

Elena walked into her home with Katherine by her side and quickly met the disapproving looks of her friends. She turned to Katherine, "Could you wait up in my room for a few minutes. I need to talk to them."

"Whatever you say." Katherine smiled, pulling in Elena for a long passionate kiss. After she had enjoyed Elena's soft lips and inviting mouth longer than she knew was appropriate, she smiled at Jeremy, Caroline, Bonnie and Alaric and then happily walked up the stairs.

Letting out a cute sigh, Elena turned and walked into the living room, "Okay, I know this is difficult for all of you, but you need to accept it. Katherine is part of my life now, so you need to treat her with respect."

Bonnie stepped forward, "Elena, you have to see how strange this is for all of us. It doesn't make sense. I know you and Stefan were having problems and that Rebekah person didn't help, but just when did you have time to be with Katherine?"

"It's a long story, but it doesn't matter how it happened, just that it has." Elena said, knowing her explanation would only make things worse, "I want to be with her and I need all of you to support me. I can't be fighting you all the time."

"I don't want to fight, but you know you can't trust her. She's just like Damon." Jeremy said.

"Maybe that's why she likes her." Caroline said, glaring right at Elena, "You have a thing for the bad boys and I guess that goes for girls now to, but you have to know how this is going to end?"

Elena smiled, "Yes, I believe it's going to end with us being happy forever."

"OMG, how can you spout that crap after what happened with Stefan? Didn't you learn a thing from that?" Caroline yelled.

Elena squeezed her hands together, doing her best not to show emotion, "That was different. Stefan had a lot of things he wasn't dealing with. I believe deep down he wants to be a ripper more than he wants to be in love. He tried denying it, but it just made him miserable. I fell for the Stefan that was a lie. I accept that, but I know all about Katherine. All the bad that goes with the good and I still can't stop thinking about her."

"Question?" Caroline asked, raising her hand as if she were in school, "Why not just hook with Damon?"

"Well Caroline, I don't feel the same way about him, besides I don't trust him." Elena said. The minute the words exited her lips, she saw the whole room gasping at her words, "Okay, I know that might sound strange considering how often Katherine has lied to us, but she is different than Damon in many ways. I believe she's much more open about her feelings. I think Damon loved Katherine and he was projecting that onto me. Katherine doesn't love him and I don't love him. I don't want him dead, but I don't see him that way."

"If I may say something here." Alaric said as he stepped forward, "I don't want to tell you what to do, but I have to wonder how Katherine could break through your defenses so quickly. I'm sure you're going to be offended by this, but are you sure she hasn't compelled you?"

"I'm positive. I still have the necklace. I can't be compelled." Elena said, holding it up for everyone to see, "Is it really that horrible for you guys to believe that I fell in love with Katherine? You guys haven't seen the other side of her. Just like most of you never saw the other side of Damon. They both have good inside them. They just don't show it very often."

Alaric nodded, "Yes, I believe that even Katherine has some good in her, but I don't trust her at all. I didn't trust Damon either in the beginning, but he earned my trust over time. Katherine has done nothing but lie and manipulate all of us, so you can't expect us just to forget that."

As she looked at the faces of all he friends staring at her like she was crazy, Elena finally got a sense of what Katherine must feel every time she walked into the room, like the enemy. She steadied herself for a moment before replying as calmly as she could, "You have no reason to fear her. She would never hurt anyone I care about. She knows that."

"She's a powerful vampire, who is prone to impulsive displays of violence. She has a temper that makes Damon look like a teddy bear, so I'm sorry Elena, but I'm not going to take your word that Katherine is harmless." Alaric added, not holding back anything.

Knowing she was backed into a corner, Elena let out a deep sigh, "Okay, I suppose that is asking too much, but I hope you all come to see that Katherine loves me and that's all that really matters in the end."

"Are you sure she's even capable of love?" Jeremy asked bluntly.

"Yes, I know she is. I know she loves me. Anyway, all I ask is that you treat her nicely when she's here. Can I count all of you to do that for me?" Elena asked. One by one each of her friends nodded their agreement, "Great. Well, I'm going to go upstairs to get Katherine because there's something we need to talk about."

After Elena had gone upstairs and closed her bedroom door, Caroline looked at the others, "Can we have her legally committed?"

Alaric smiled, "I'm not sure that's the best idea."

"I'm with Caroline. I've never seen Elena act like this." Jeremy nodded in agreement, "Well, maybe when she first met Stefan, but at least he was trying to be good. Katherine doesn't even pretend that she's changed, so what the hell is going on here? What happened between those two in the last few months?"

"Obviously they fell in love." Bonnie said, "I know we don't like it, but if she wasn't compelled, then we have to believe she's telling the truth. She loves Katherine. I don't know how or why it happened, but we know from experience that when you fight Elena on love, you're just pushing her to be with that person even more. Person or vampire as the case may be."

Caroline stepped forward, "Okay, we know that Klaus is gone for now but is not done with Stefan and we know Rebekah was dumped by Stefan, betrayed be Elena and lied to by Klaus, so she's hardly in a good mood, plus we know Stefan is back to his old ways of killing again, while Damon's attempts to 'go good' got him nowhere, so is he back to his old ways? Add Katherine to the mix and we have five very dangerous vampires living in or around Mystic Falls. I can't imagine any of them being happy with Elena or Katherine, so do you think that's what she wants to talk us about?"

"No, it's something much worse." Elena said as she walked into the room with Katherine by her side again, "There may be an even bigger threat than those five vampires out there."

"His name is Vidar" Katherine said, stepping up and addressing the room, "He is an original vampire who was believed dead for the last 100 years, but I have reason to believe he's alive. I don't know what his intentions are, but I do know that the Salvatore brothers were on his hit list when he was alive. If he comes after them, then everyone in Mystic Falls is in danger. He shows no mercy to anyone. Not women, not children, not cute little animals, he will kill every living thing in his path."

"Isn't that great." Caroline said as she glared at Katherine, "Why am I guessing that you have a history with this Vidar person to?"

"Well, you'd be right, but it's not the same kind that Damon and Stefan have with him. He liked me. I was never a threat to him and I never crossed him, so he has no reason to come after me, which means Elena is safe."

Caroline rolled her eyes at Katherine's answer, "We only have your word for that and forgive me if I don't believe you."

"I don't expect you to, but you can ask Damon or Stefan about this and they will tell you the same thing. I never purposely antagonized people like those two did in their prime. I preferred to keep a low profile, that's how I've lived this long." Katherine said with a proud smile.

"Goody for you, but what are we going to do about this?" Caroline asked.

"First, we are going to talk to Rebekah." Elena said, holding Katherine tightly, "It seems like she's had contact with Vidar and we need to know why."

"Wait a minute. You're not going with Katherine." Bonnie said, shaking her head in disbelief, "That's suicide. Rebekah hates you. She blames you for Stefan turning her down."

"Yes, she was upset, but when she learned of Klaus' lies, manipulation and the fact he killed their mother, I think something inside her changed." Elena explained, "She was free of his control. She didn't have to be angry all the time. We talked after and she could've killed me. She finally accepted that she and Stefan just weren't meant to be."

"Fine, but we're coming with you." Bonnie said as her friends all stepped in beside her.

"This is getting way too complicated for my liking. The truth is I didn't think it was a good idea for you to go in the first place, so I will do this myself." Katherine said, pulling away from Elena and walking towards the front door.

Elena rushed after Katherine, catching her just as she'd stepped outside, "What is going on? Why do you always change around other people? They aren't bad people you know. They just want to help."

"Elena, I know you care about them and that's great, but they have no clue what they're doing. They are amateurs and Rebekah is a very dangerous vampire and one mistake means you're dead. It's hard enough worrying about you, but I can't deal with the added pressure of being responsible for your idiot friends safety."

"Idiot friends?" Elena asked with a mystified head shake, "You need to stop doing that."

Katherine tried to hold in her smile, "Okay, what would you like me to call them? Annoying friends? Well meaning but inept friends? Busy body friends? What?"

"How about just my friends? That's simple. You can't go wrong with that." Elena smiled. As Katherine groaned at the thought, Elena put her arms around her waist and gave her a soft kiss on the lips, "Things will go so much smoother for everyone if we can make an effort here."

"I'll try, but keep them away from me, because none of them like me and I don't trust Bonnie or Caroline one bit. They will be looking for any opportunity to get rid of me, so I can't let my guard down. I'm sorry. I'll be civilized, but I'm never going to be friends with them. I hope you can accept that."

"Well, I'm not going to push it right now, but I believe in time you can get along with my friends. Anyway, I want you to take someone with you, so you can take Bonnie or Caroline or even Alaric, since he knows what he's doing. I'm not letting you go alone."

"Normally I'd be annoyed by such a request, but you're just too adorable to say no to." Katherine said, happily kissing Elena's inviting lips yet again. After enjoying another long, but slow kiss, Katherine pulled back a step, "Okay, I pick Alaric. I know he's smart enough not to try anything with me."

"Okay, I'll let him know." Elena said with a nod. She smiled and walked back inside to her friends, walking right up to Alaric, "I'd like you to go with her. But please do not try anything stupid. Just back her up and everything will be fine."

"I have no problem going with her." Alaric said calmly.

"Wait." Caroline yelled. She walked up to Elena still shaking her head, "Let me or Bonnie go with them to. The more the better."

"No, I think in this case less is better. Rebekah does have a temper and I think Alaric has the right temperament to deal with her." Elena explained.

"Oh that's nice. So I guess we're just emotional girls, is that it?" Caroline asked, not even trying to hide her anger.

"I'm not saying it's bad, but each situation is different. Just let it go please."

Bonnie and Caroline held their tongues, while Alaric grabbed his coat, walked outside and hopped into Katherine's car.

**End of Chapter 1**.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**.

**Mallett's Crossing, 12 miles SE of Mystic Falls**.

Rebekah lay in her bed, flipping through her thousand year old photo album, wondering why she kept falling for her brother's lies. She sat up in a flash, grabbed a dagger from under her pillow and drove it through his picture, puncturing not only the book, but her bed as well. She slowly removed the dagger from the picture while tossing the photo album against the wall. Still steaming mad, she got to her feet, walked over and grabbed her cell phone from the table. She sat down in her comfy chair and waited for someone to answer.

"Hello?"

"Vidar, you're sounding well." Rebekah said, "Have you recovered enough to continue on with my plan?"

Lying in a massive bed, surrounded by a bevy of beautiful woman, the giant of a man let out a hardy laugh, "Rebekah, I was wondering if you'd ever get back to me."

"I wanted you to enjoy life for a while before you got back to doing what you do best. I take it that you're feeling 100% now?"

"I'm feeling very good, but I'll feel better once I get my hands on Damon Salvatore."

"I understand your desire to kill him and I have no issue with that, but I brought you back to kill my brother. That's the number one priority right now." Rebekah said, as her voice began to rise. Not wanting to cause a stir, she smiled and lowered her voice, "Just know that Damon will always be around, but my brother is a master at staying alive and if the track gets cold, you may never find him. Just remember what that means."

Vidar got up off the bed, the floor shaking as all 7 feet, 300 pounds of him stomped across the room, "You'd be wise not to threaten me pretty lady. I may be grateful to you for reviving me, but I don't answer to anyone."

"Do you remember how you got into that tomb? Do you remember who did it to you?"

Scratching his thick blonde hair, Vidar pondered the question for a few minutes, before shrugging his shoulders, "I don't remember much about my life to be honest with you. I just know that I want to kill things and you could be next if you keep that tone with me."

"The world has a way of keeping evil in check. No matter how big, how strong, how menacing someone is, there's always something bigger or badder to take them down. You to have a weakness Vidar, you just don't know it, but I do. I know what can bring you to your knees, what can make you cry like a baby and I have it right here with me." Rebekah said as she stroked the potion in her hand, aptly titled 'death', "So, if we can just get back to business that would make me quite happy."

"I don't believe you."

"I didn't spend the last few hundred years searching for a way to revive you only to find out you're not worth the effort." Rebekah snapped. She picked up a small dagger, gripping it firmly with her soft, delicate hands, but in a flash she drove it into the metal table, splitting it in two as she smiled at the debris falling around her, "We had an agreement and if you don't live up to it I will make sure that the next time we meet you'll wish you were entombed again, because when I'm finished with you there won't be any more second chances. If you want to test me, go ahead, I will find someone else that's competent enough to do what I need."

Vidar walked out into the hallway, closing his bedroom door behind him, "The world has changed a lot since I was last in it. Women seem to have forgotten their place. I'm not sure I like it."

"You don't have to like it, but you do have to honor our agreement." Rebekah said firmly, "Now, Klaus was last seen heading west, presumably to California where he has another group of hybrids waiting for him. I need you to stop him before he gets to them, because these are not the same as the others. He's made some adjustments since Michael compelled his last group, so this group is completely devoted to him and it's not just a handful, he has over 50 of them throughout the state and if he gets them all together, not even you can stop him."

"I cannot be killed by a vampire or werewolf, I do not fear them." Vidar said boldly, "I will kill your brother and then we are even."

"That's all I want." Rebekah said calmly, "I have a couple associates tracking Klaus, but it's only a matter of time before he loses them, so I need you to get moving now. He stopped off just outside of Wichita last night, so he'll be in Colorado by tomorrow. I'll send you any new information when I get it."

"I'm still not familiar with the ways of this new world." Vidar said, scratching his long blonde locks, "How do I get to this place?"

"I'll send someone over and they will drive you there, okay? All you have to do is take care of Klaus when you find him. You have his picture, right?"

Vidar pulled a picture out of his pocket and grinned, "He's a scrawny looking thing, it will be easy to kill him."

"Do not underestimate him. "Rebekah warned, "He's an original vampire, a hybrid actually. He's part werewolf as well, so he's not to be taken lightly."

"Just bring me to him and I will kill him. Goodbye Rebekah."

Rebekah pulled the phone from her ear and put it back on the table, smiling at the thought of a life of true freedom. Before she could even imagine such a life, there was a knock on her door. She walked slowly over to it, took a peak through the peep hole and let out a sigh at the sight of Katherine standing in front of her. She pulled open the door and glared at her, "Why are you here?"

"I need to talk to you about Vidar."

Unable to hide her surprise, Rebekah closed the door on Katherine instead. She took a few seconds to regain her composure and opened it once more, "I'm sorry, but I don't recall inviting you here, so I think it would be best if you left."

"I can't. This isn't just about you." Katherine said, "I can almost guess why you might want to revive Vidar, but you have no idea what he's capable of. Even if he does your bidding, he'll come back and kill you just because he can. That's not my problem, but he also has issues with Damon and that's not something Elena wants."

"I may have put Elena's betrayal behind me, but that doesn't mean I owe her anything." Rebekah, shaking her head as if it shake away the painful memories, "I understood why she stabbed me, but I was no threat to her or her plan. But now, any good feelings I had for her are gone. I don't care if Damon dies. I don't care if Stefan dies. In fact, I don't care if any of Elena's friends die, so if that's what you came here for, you're out of luck."

Alaric stepped forward, "I'm a bit of history buff when it comes to vampires and other assorted supernatural things and I've done a lot of research into Vidar's past and I believe you are in grave danger the moment he fulfills his end of the bargain. It's my understanding that he kills every single person he's ever worked for. It's part of his mystique. He truly is a killer with no remorse and you have just set yourself up as a target."

Rebekah laughed and turned back inside her large room, "I did my research and I saw no such thing. Besides, I know how to kill him, so I'm not really worried about that."

Pushing slowly forward, Alaric followed Rebekah inside, "I don't mean to rude, but I think you got some bad information. Vidar was entombed by accident. Nobody made it happen. It was a strange set of circumstances that set it all in motion, but to think those same circumstances will happen again is just naïve."

"No." Rebekah yelled, stomping her feet across the room, "I talked to a witch about this. Someone from my past, someone I trust. She said he was given special powers by a powerful witch, but when he betrayed her she created a potion that would kill him on the spot. The only problem was she died before she could use it on him. Luckily, he was cursed by another powerful witch with dark magic. While he was unconscious they had him entombed. What makes you think you know better than a thousand year old witch, who was there when it happened?"

"As I said, I have my sources." Alaric said with a slight head nod, "I've been researching things like this my whole life and I've met a lot of very interesting people along the way. My question to you is, how do you plan on killing him?"

"I was told that black magic would work. I still believe that." Rebekah said confidently, albeit less confident than she was five minutes ago, "His weakness was said to be the blood of a virgin. An adult virgin, which as you know is not so easy to find in your world, but I found it and I have it with me. I have many different vials of it, just to be sure it works."

"If this is true, I should've read about it." Alaric said, his voice trailing off as he moved slowly around the room, "If I could ask you to hold off on trying to kill Vidar until I do some more research, it could save your life and any others who get in his way if it fails."

"I want to come with you." Rebekah said, her voice changing from angry to almost pleading in nature, "I want to know who you talked to about such things. I have some questions about my brother and other things that you don't need to know about."

"You're free to come, but I should tell you that my source is a very cautious person and you'll have to abide by whatever she decides."

"I'm positive I can get her to talk to me." Rebekah said with a sexy smile, "Anyway, if you don't mind, I'd like to talk to Elena. May I come back with you?"

"No. That's not a good idea." Katherine said quickly, "I don't trust you and I don't believe you've gotten over Elena stabbing you. I know I wouldn't. I think it's best you stay here and keep your distance from her."

Rebekah moved up to close to Katherine, smiling down at her, "It's amazing how much you look like her and yet how different the two of you are. I don't need your permission, but I asked as a courtesy to Elena. If you don't want to help, then I will find other ways to talk to her."

Knowing she had her back against the wall, Katherine could only grit her teeth and smile, "What do you need to talk to her about?"

"It's personal, but I promise I will not hurt her." Rebekah said, sounding very sincere.

Katherine took her time, doing her best to read Rebekah and after a long pause, she let out a sigh, "Fine. How about we say you owe me a favor and we'll call it even?"

"I can live with that." Rebekah said with a big smile, holding out her hand for Katherine to shake.

Katherine stepped forward, grabbed Rebekah's hand and shook it firmly, doing her best to smile at a situation she was anything but happy about.

**Boulder, Colorado**.

Vidar stepped out of the black limousine, stretched his long muscular legs and grabbed the binoculars one of Rebekah's associate's handed to him. He put them up to his eyes, zoomed in on the convoy of vehicles parked a couple blocks ahead, smiling as he spotted Klaus walking back towards the lead van, "That's him."

One of the men walked up beside Vidar, used his own set of binocular's to verify the information, and then nodded at another man, "Call Rebekah, let her know we've found her brother."

"Yes sir." The man said, before turning back inside the car.

"You stay here." Vidar bellowed as he took a few steps forward, but stopped suddenly and turned back towards the man, "How long have you worked for Rebekah?"

"Not long." The tall bearded man said, not used to leaning upwards to talk to anyone, "A couple months maybe, why?"

"I just can't picture working for a woman. Not even one as beautiful as she is. Once I kill her brother I'm going to kill her next, so how loyal are you to her?"

The man backed away from the hulking vampire, "I have no beef with you at all."

"Of course not, but when your employer is killed would you be willing to work for me? I need some people to help me learn the ways of your world. I've been out of commission for over a hundred years and if you were willing to join me I can make it worth your while. Even though I've been dead to the world, my fortune still exists and I will reward anyone who wishes to work with me."

"Perhaps I could give you an answer after Rebekah is gone."

"Oh I'll be killing her and then we can talk." Vidar said with a confident smile. He looked at the dagger he was given and shook his head at the man, "I don't like working with such puny weapons."

"It's specially designed to kill Klaus."

"If it doesn't work, I'll just use my trusty axe and do this the fun way instead." Vidar bellowed as he turned and headed towards Klaus.

As the man turned to walk back to the limo, Damon grabbed his neck and snapped it in a flash. He walked slowly towards the limo, killed the other man inside and made his way towards Vidar. He caught up to him just in time to watch him mercilessly tear apart Klaus' overmatched henchmen before walking boldly towards the usually arrogant hybrid, smiling as blood dripped off his trusty ask, he waved and let out a hearty bellow, "It's been a long time my tiny friend. By the look on your face I'm guessing you didn't expect to see me again. That makes this all the more fun."

"Vidar." Klaus said almost in a whisper, "It's good to see you again. I've always hoped we would meet again."

"I don't believe you mean that." Vidar said with an annoyed smirk, "I have not forgotten what you did to me, but under normal circumstances it wouldn't be enough to kill you, but now it's just a job."

"Whatever they are paying you I will double it to know who sent you here."

"Money is not my concern. I made a deal and I never go back on my word."

Klaus grinned, "No, you just kill them all so what difference does it make? You're just an oversized punk who needs to be put in his place."

"I remember your arrogance well little man and just so you know before you die, it was your lovely sister who hired me to kill you." Vidar said, smiling as he watched Klaus' face turn white with shock, "I thought that would shut you up."

"No, you have it all wrong." Klaus said, his smile never leaving his face, "Rebekah is mad, but she'll understand in time that I had no choice. I got angry at our mother and before I knew it I was ripping her apart. I don't even remember it. She didn't need to know that. Mikael was the real threat, but he's gone now and I was going to tell her the truth, but in due time."

"It's too late for that now. I have my orders, so do you have any last words?"

"No, I figure when I die I won't have time for such pleasantries and that's just the way I want it." Klaus said with a confident smile. He looked directly at the towering figure in front of him, pulled out a small vial from his pocket and held it in his hand, "As for you, well I appreciate you telling me who hired you and now it's time for you to say goodbye."

"I don't fear you, but I will take great pleasure in wiping that smug smile off your strange looking face." Vidar pulled back his axe, took one last look at his target and began to swing it rapidly towards Klaus.

With little time on his hands, Klaus flipped the lid of the small vial and tossed it at Vidar and quickly lunged to the left and rolled out of the way of the impending attack. He got to his knees just in time to watch Vidar clutch his chest, then his head, before shooting one last look of disdain towards Klaus as he fell to the ground.

Damon walked up towards Klaus and gave him a nod and clapped his hands a few times, "Well done. I have to wonder how you knew how to kill him."

Getting to his feet, Klaus marched over and glared at Damon, "I've been doing this for a long time. There's not much I don't know about. A better question might be, what the hell are you doing here?"

"Just getting some fresh air." Damon said, sniffing the cool mountain air.

"Are you working for Rebekah now?" Klaus asked angrily, but seconds later he shook his head and smiled, "No, I can't see that happening. But, you could be working with Katherine and Elena, but why? I've kept my distance. There's nothing more for me in your stupid little town, so if I were you I'd stay out of way."

"I was more interested in Vidar than you, but since he's dead my work is done."

"Before you go, I did have one favor to ask."

"I don't think that's a good idea." Damon said, turning away from Klaus, "It's best you keep moving and I'll head back home myself."

"No." Klaus growled, instantly grabbing Damon by the throat, "Maybe I didn't make myself clear, but this wasn't so much a favor as it was a warning. There's one thing I need to take care of in Mystic Falls and once it's done I will be gone forever."

Damon struggled to budge Klaus' hand from his throat, but when that didn't work, he flashed his trademark smirk instead, "Well, if it's just one thing."

"I thought you'd see it my way." Klaus said with a smile. He eased his grip on Damon's throat and stepped back a couple paces, "Tyler wasn't exactly thrilled with the prospect of leaving Mystic Falls, but I need you to make him rethink that. Normally I'd just kill him, but he is a valuable hybrid and I'd rather not. I'm not quite sure how he's doing it, but I've been slowly losing control of him. My guess is it's that witch Bonnie that's helped him, but it's up to you to bring him to me in LA or I will have to make it much less appealing for Tyler to stay here. I think you know what I mean, so is that clear?"

"I could care less if you kill Tyler, so I'm not sure how this affects me at all?"

Klaus lunged towards Damon, "If I don't get my way, everyone in Mystic Falls will find it a lot less appealing to stay there as well."

Damon's smile faded as he realized what Klaus was implying, "Don't even think of hurting Elena. I don't care how powerful you are I'll make it my life's work to bring you down in the most painful way I can."

"Yes, that's quite noble of you, but it doesn't change anything. Do as I say and we have no problems." Klaus stated in his usual menacing way, before putting on a big smile and heading back to his car, "Good then. I need to get back on the road. I have some urgent matters to attend to in that fascinating city in the sun. Have Tyler in LA within a week or I'll come looking for him and everyone you know."

Damon watched Klaus drive off, but as he turned around he found himself face to face with Vidar.

"You let him get a way." Vidar bellowed, "Now I have even more reason to kill you."

"Hold on there big fella." Damon said, doing his best to back away from the large man, "How come you're not dead?"

"Do you believe I'm stupid?"

Smiling at the delicious opportunity for sarcasm, Damon used up all his will power to let that one go, "Of course not, but you looked dead for a while."

"I've known about the curse for hundreds of years, long before I was entombed. I was ready for this. I couldn't stop the original effect of momentary paralysis, but the ultimate effect of death no longer works. That means that you are going to help me find Klaus or I will kill you slowly over a hundred years."

"You might as well kill me now, because you're going to kill me the minute you find Klaus anyway."

"I'm a man of reason, mostly." Vidar said with a slight chuckle, "If you help me, I will consider your debt paid in full and unless you cross me again, I will allow you to live. So do we have a deal?"

"Are you going to live up to your reputation and kill Rebekah next?"

"Yes, I believe I will." Vidar said with a simple nod, "She may be beautiful, but she's also smart enough to know that she signed her own death warrant the minute she hired me."

"Good. Well, I guess we head to California then. I'm guessing you haven't been there in a few hundred years?"

"No, but I was here way back when this country was just starting out. It was a wonderful place. I did well in that time." Vidar took a deep breath and looked around at the mountains and blue sky, then at the cars passing by down below and a plan flying above and he turned to Damon shaking his head, "What have I missed in the last 100 years?"

"Technology. That's what you missed." Damon said with an amused smile, "It's a lot harder to be a bully when you can't just kill whoever stands in your way. I've learned to be more cautious over the years, but I don't sense subtlety being your strong suit."

"What good is a world where might does not prevail?" Vidar questioned sincerely.

"It's just different, but you either adapt or you die."

"I will not die. I am Vidar 'The Butcher of Gothenburg'!" Vidar stated loudly.

Damon held in his smile at Vidar's bold statement, "Yes, well, that might've meant something 100 years ago, but the world has changed more than you can possibly imagine. But, since we're on speaking terms again, I could help you adapt to this world, but you'd have to owe me a favor?"

Vidar smiled down at Damon, "Even when I despised you, I respected the way you did things. Since I am in need of guidance, I will take you up on your offer, but don't make me regret it."

"I wouldn't think of it." Damon said with a big smile, holding out his hand for Vidar.

Vidar grabbed Damon's hand and squeezed it so tight he caused Damon to fall to his knees. He laughed and pulled Damon back to his feet and let go of his hand, "Here's to our new partnership. Lead the way my friend, I'm anxious to hear all about this new world we live in."

**End of Chapter 2**.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**.

**Elena's Home**.

Katherine barged into the front door, threw her purse across the room and let out a loud scream. Caroline and Bonnie rushed into the room with Elena and Jeremy right behind them. Katherine turned as Rebekah walked up to the front door, but couldn't move another inch, "We have a guest Elena, but you don't have to invite her in."

Elena rolled her eyes at Katherine and walked over to Rebekah, "I'm hoping that since you came with them you are not going to cause any problems?"

"No. I just want to talk to you alone."

Caroline rushed in between Elena and Rebekah, "Okay, it's one thing to try and force us to like one crazy psycho bitch vampire, but now you want us to invite an even more powerful psycho into your home?"

"This is not the time Caroline." Elena said softly, before turning back towards Rebekah, "Come on in."

Rebekah smiled as she stepped into Elena's home, feeling the eyes of everyone in the room on her as she stood beside her, "I'd be happy to talk to you here, but this is private so I hope we can be alone for a while."

"I think that can be arranged." Elena said as she walked over and pulled Katherine into the kitchen with her, "Okay, I don't know why you brought her back here, but since you did I feel it's best I do as she asks. I'm just going to talk to her but you need to stay down here."

"I hope you know that if you're wrong about her there's nothing I can do to save you from down here." Katherine said calmly. As much as she tried, she couldn't hide the fear she felt at leaving Elena alone with a very powerful and angry vampire, "I don't think it's worth it. She's too unpredictable. We don't know anything about her really. She could kill us all if she wanted to, so you better be right about her."

"I am." Elena said calmly. She pulled Katherine in close and gave her a nice long soft kiss, holding her tightly as their lips finally separated, "I love you and I'm going to be back down here in a little while. I promise you that."

"Okay, but if you're wrong I will come find you wherever you are and say, I told you so."

"That's kind of cute, but there'll be no need for hunting down my corpse, so if you'll excuse me I will get this over with." Elena held onto Katherine's hand for as long as she could, before letting go as she walked back into the living room.

Alaric walked up to her before she got to Rebekah, "I think you should let one of us come with you. I don't sense that she's a threat, but I have a hard time reading her. I don't want to be wrong, the price is too high."

"I appreciate your concern, but I don't fear Rebekah. I don't why, but I think we have a connection and we might've been friends had I not stabbed her. All I know is I have to find out what she wants to talk to me about. Let me get this over with." Elena smiled and stepped past Alaric, walked up to Rebekah and led her up the stairs and into her bedroom.

Rebekah smiled and looked around the room, taking quick notice of the picture of Elena and Katherine on her night stand, "You look so beautiful when you're in love."

"Thank you." Elena said with a partial smile, "I'm sure you didn't come all the way back here just to give me a compliment."

"Would it be so bad if I did?" Rebekah said with a playful smile.

Not sure what to make of Rebekah's comment, Elena chose to turn away from the tall beautiful blonde, "I don't think I know what you mean."

"Do remember the conversation we had before you stabbed me?" Rebekah asked. She walked up and stood directly behind Elena, leaning over her shoulder as she waited for her reply.

Feeling incredibly uneasy, Elena pulled away, but kept her smile on her face, "I know I meant everything I said to you. I feel horrible for what I did. In hindsight I can see I didn't have to do that and I'll forever regret it. I hope you believe me."

"Oh I do believe you, but I thought we were getting closer leading up to the prom, which I missed yet again by the way." Rebekah said with a cute grin.

"We were and I can only repeat that I'm sorry for everything."

"Was I wrong in thinking that maybe something was happening between us? Every time our eyes met I felt this powerful force was growing around us." Rebekah said with a soft smile. She once again moved in close to Elena, "If I'm wrong in thinking that, then I'll happily leave Mystic Falls, but please be honest with me. That's all I ask."

Elena smiled and took her time before answering, pacing around her small bedroom as she thought of what to say. She finally stopped and sat down on the end of her bed, "You have to remember that it's been months since that happened and so much has changed since then."

Rebekah sat down beside Elena, "You avoided the question."

"That's because it's not really fair to go back in time like that. I did like you and I still do, but I'm with Katherine now and I'm happy, so I hope you can be happy for me."

"It's been my experience over the years that when people don't answer questions properly they have something to hide." Rebekah reached in and turned Elena's face towards her, "Do you not feel anything for me right now?"

Once again Elena hesitated, but found it difficult to concentrate with Rebekah's soft hand brushing against her cheek, "I think I was going through some things when we became close, with Stefan being all distant and craving the kills and being under Klaus' thumb, I found you to be very intriguing. You seem so different than Klaus, more like Elijah really. You seem honorable, but also so sweet and vulnerable, and I guess a part of me found that alluring in some way. But, things have changed since then. I'm with Katherine now. I'm sorry."

Rebekah pulled her hand away from Elena and got to her feet in a flash, "I see. Well, I was wrong then. My eyes rarely deceive me, but I will trust that you are telling the truth. I feel I need to tell you the truth as well. I can't stop thinking of you and I don't know what to do about it. I've never felt like this before. Klaus never allowed me to have any friends and dating was out of the question. I do know what it feels like to be attracted to someone and I feel that with you and I swear you feel something for me to. Why aren't you looking at me? Am I that repulsive to you?"

"Rebekah, whatever you are feeling is fine, but I hope you aren't here to cause problems for me and Katherine." Elena replied, still not making serious eye contact with her pretty guest, "I have enough to deal with already. My friends don't like her and Damon and Stefan aren't much better, so it's just been hard trying to make this work, but if Katherine finds out you have feelings for me, everything is going to explode."

Studying Elena closely, Rebekah once again sat down beside her, "Please look in my eyes and tell me you feel nothing for me."

"I can't feel anything for you. I'm with Katherine and I love her." Elena answered, but once again turning away from Rebekah before she was finished, "Please don't make this harder than it already is."

"You won't answer me and that frustrates me a lot." Rebekah said, grabbing the small garbage can in her hands and squashing into a million tine pieces. She let out a sigh and smiled once more, "Is it possible for us to be friends then? I don't know how that works really, but I liked my time with the cheerleader girls. They were so friendly and actually seemed to care about me, can we have that?"

"Um, I don't know." Elena said, stepping off the bed and walking over to her window, "It might be kind of hard to be friends with someone if you have other feelings for them. I don't think Katherine would like it much, because she'd pick up on it and I do not want you two fighting ever."

"I would never hurt anyone you cared about, unless they attacked me first."

"That's just it, Katherine would attack you if she found out you were interested in being more than just friends."

"So you want me to leave?"

Elena let out an agonizing sigh, "I wish things were different, but there's a lot of beautiful girls out there and I'd be happy to help you find someone."

"I don't feel this way for anyone else." Rebekah said softly. She turned and walked towards the bedroom door, "I don't like how this turned out. I had hoped for so much more. I will go now, but I just can't pretend to be happy. I need to think about all this. Goodbye Elena."

Elena thought about saying something, but she couldn't find one word to say and sat back down on her bed as Rebekah walked out the door, wondering just what that meant for everyone she loved.

** Mystic Falls Hospital**.

Dr. Meredith Fell sat at her desk looking over a patient's x-rays while sipping at her coffee and keeping an eye on the clock at the same time. Once it struck 2 PM, she put down the file, turned on her computer and quickly checked her email. She smiled as she saw a few new messages, but she was only interested in the one from an unknown address. She pulled it up and began reading, but her smile began to fade as she got to the end. She got to her feet, still steaming mad, and picked up her phone and placed a call. She paced around her office as she waited for someone to pick up.

"Meredith, it's good to hear from you again." Klaus said with a big grin, "I take it you got my email and are calling to voice your displeasure with my answer?"

"I did what you asked and you promised to tell Rebekah the truth about me." Meredith said, "I can't deal with the way she's ignoring me. I'm not afraid of you. I've been talking to some of Elena's friends and if you continue to turn Rebekah against me I will have to do something about it."

Klaus stood up at the mention of a threat, "Is that so? What does the pretty young doctor think she's going to do to me?"

"That's for you to find out, but if I go through with this you'll never know what happened, you'll just be dead forever. I think you might want to take this seriously, because you know what my research has uncovered in the last few years, so I'm asking you nicely one more time, would you please tell Rebekah that I did not betray her. It's the truth and that's all I want. Why is that so hard for you to understand?"

"I love my sister, but she has a weakness for humans." Klaus said with a heaping help of disdain, "She can't seem to make the right choices, so I have to make them for her. You were not good for her. You made her forget about me and I won't stand for that. Her family means everything to her, so I will look after her, not you."

"What about her happiness? Doesn't she deserve to be happy?" Meredith yelled, "You know she was happy with me, so you know you're just being an ass."

"Sometimes I have to make the tough choices for her, but in the end, she knows it's for her own good." Klaus said with a smug smile. His expression quickly changed as he sat back down at his desk, "Now, if you think you can threaten and me and just go on living, you probably don't know me very well. None of your research is a threat to me and you just bluffed your way to your own death."

"I'm not bluffing and I'm not alone." Meredith said with the utmost confidence, "So if you want to come after me, I'll be here until 9 and then I'll be at my house and I will even invite you inside. That's how scared I am, until then, goodbye Klaus."

Klaus put down his phone and pondered his options.

Meredith grabbed her purse, jacket and walked out of her office, but came to a screeching halt as Caroline stood in her path, "What brings you here?"

"I've heard about you from Alaric and I need to ask you a couple questions about the vampires in our little town. Could I buy you lunch?"

"I was just heading there, so sure, I could do that."

"Great." Caroline said, motioning for Meredith to lead the way.

** Elena's home**.

Alaric poured Katherine a drink and sat down across from her, "Do you really love Elena?"

"What are you, her dad?" Katherine asked with an annoyed smirk.

"No, but I am a concerned friend." Alaric said, not taking Katherine's bait, "You have to know she's been through a lot in the last three years and the last thing she needs is to get her heart broken again, or worse. I just want to know if this is some kind of game or if you're capable of loving someone."

"You don't seem to think I could be, so why should I try and change your mind?"

"Oh you don't have to, but it would make things a lot easier on yourself if you'd make the effort."

"I like you Alaric, you seem straight forward, you don't play games and I know you care about Elena and for that I'm grateful, but I don't like being put on the spot about my feelings. Nobody trusts me around here and quite frankly I don't care. " Katherine snapped. She took a long drink and all she could see was Elena's disapproving glare beating down on her, so she shook her head and leaned in and stared Alaric right the eyes, "I love Elena. That is the truth. I don't know why all of her friends have to come with the package. I didn't think that part through or I might've kept my distance, but in the end I think we were meant to be together. I don't usually believe in that kind of stuff, but in all my years I've never felt this way about anyone. It's like all the pieces fell together so perfectly. I don't feel I owe you an explanation, but I'm giving you one for Elena's sake. I do love her and I can't even put into words how she makes me feel, but I don't believe I've ever experienced true happiness before I fell in love with her."

Alaric took a long drink himself and nodded at Katherine, "I actually believe you. You need to realize I'm not the enemy here. I want Elena to be happy and if you can make her happy then I will welcome you into the fold."

"I will make her happy." Katherine stated firmly, "I may not do it in conventional ways, but I know that I will make her happy and that's all I care about."

"Then I think that's a good start." Alaric said with a relieved smile. He reached down by his feet, pulled out a folder and handed it to Katherine, "If I could change the topic for a second, I'd like to know what you might've heard about a woman named Dr. Meredith Fell?"

Katherine opened the folder, flipped through the countless pages of history before putting it on the coffee table in front of her, "I've heard of her, but I've never met her and have no idea if the things I've heard are true or just rumors. Why are you asking about her?"

"She helped me when I was in the hospital and I got to talking with her a few times and I sensed something was different about her, but I couldn't place it. I had a friend of mine do a background check and it appears she knows Rebekah and Klaus quite well and that makes me nervous."

"Why? If she wants to get mixed up with them how is it a problem for us?"

"Well, Rebekah seems somewhat attached to Elena. I don't want to go into detail about this, but before she stabbed Rebekah, Elena seemed to be getting very close to her. When she stabbed Rebekah it really changed her. She didn't just stab some vampire, she stabbed someone she was beginning to like. Now, the reason Dr. Fell is a concern is because her connection to Rebekah was not just business, they were together, as in a couple."

"Rebekah had a girlfriend?" Katherine asked, more than a little surprised by the news, "I didn't think Klaus would allow that."

"He didn't know. At least not to begin with." Alaric nodded. He flipped through his notes a couple times before finding the page he was looking for. He once again handed it to Katherine, "The thing is Meredith has been working on some rather unique experiments since she was just a teenager. It seems her mother and father were killed by vampires and she was taunted by one in particular for many years after their death and she vowed to find a way to kill it, but she was also determined to fulfill her parents dream for her of becoming a doctor."

"Do you know who this vampire was who harassed her?"

"Yes, she actually talks about it in her journal." Alaric said as Katherine gave him a slightly disapproving look, "I know I shouldn't have read it, but if this is connected to Elena I just needed to know everything. Anyway, Meredith is a descendant of the founding families of Mystic Falls. Fell Church, where Damon thought you were entombed, was named after Theodore Fell, the first mayor of Mystic Falls on record. Unfortunately, most of the cities records were lost when the church was burned down, so information about her family is quite scarce."

"Is she a threat to Elena?" Katherine asked, "Aren't the founding families the ones who put all those vampires in the church to begin with? Is she carrying on the tradition of vampire hunting?"

"I don't know." Alaric said, "I need more information, but if she's a vampire hunter why would she get mixed up with Rebekah?"

"Love might change someone momentarily, but her true nature won't stay hidden for long. I need to have a talk with this person."

"I don't think that's a good idea." Alaric said as he hurried to his feet, "I already know her and we've even shared some personal secrets with each other, so I think she'd be more likely to open up to me."

"Okay, but I'm going to contact a friend a mine and see if I can get some more information on Meredith and her family." Katherine said as she got to her feet.

"Are you going to tell Elena about this?"

"Tell me about what?" Elena asked as she walked in the room.

Katherine got up, put a big smile on her face and walked over and put her arms around Elena, "It's nothing important. I have to go out of town for a bit, are you okay with that?"

"No, not until I know why."

"Alaric will fill you in, but I need to go. I love you and I'll be back before you know it." Katherine said as she raced out of the house.

"Katherine." Elena yelled, but Katherine was long gone by the time the words left her lips. Letting out her usual groan at being left in the dark, Elena walked over to Alaric, "What is it this time?"

"It may be nothing, but the doctor who treated me, the one you saw me with the other night, is a descendant of the founding families of Mystic Falls. Her family is known for being very anti vampire and we're trying to figure out if she holds those same beliefs. It's been hundreds of years, so there's good chance she's nothing like them."

"Something must have you worried or Katherine wouldn't be leaving like that. What aren't you telling me?"

"Meredith has had some contact with Rebekah and Klaus and that's what concerns us. Not that she's anti vampire, but perhaps that she's working with them. Until we know the whole story we're just going to keep an eye on her."

"How does she know Rebekah?"

"It's possible they were together at some point. That's still a bit foggy. I found bits and pieces of information when I was digging into her past, but there's a lot of holes in her history and I have no idea if that's true or not."

"Rebekah has never dated. She told me that." Elena said emphatically, not sure why she was upset at the thought of Rebekah dating someone, "I don't think she'd lie to me, so I don't believe it. Weren't you kissing this woman?"

Alaric couldn't help but smile at the question, "Truth be told, I think she was just trying to get information out of me."

"That's not good." Elena said with a deep sigh, "Why can't anything just be normal around here?"

"It will be. I promise. Just hang in there." Alaric said, doing his best to sound optimistic.

**End of Chapter 3**.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**.

**Rebekah's Home**.

Rebekah paced back in forth in her small apartment, still replaying her conversation with Elena in her head and still not happy with how it ended. She reached for a bottle of wine, poured herself a full glass and sat down on her sofa. Her long toned legs stretched out as she sipped her drink. Just as she was about to close her eyes, a loud knock on her door caused her to let out a groan and brought her to her feet again. She adjusted her tight dress, checked her hair and walked briskly towards the door. She opened it to find Stefan looking back at her, "Well, this is a surprise. What brings you here?"

"I've been hearing some things about you that don't add up. I was hoping you could clear them up for me."

"I'm not sure what you're talking about, but I'm happy to answer any questions you have." Rebekah said, pulling the door open wide, "Come in."

Stefan stepped inside and walked towards the middle of the room, waiting for Rebekah to close the door and walk towards him before he began, "I was under the impression that you were incapacitated for the last 90 years, but that's not exactly true is it?"

Smiling at the question, Rebekah nodded her head, "No, it's not." She slid in on the sofa, crossed her long legs and looked up at Stefan, "I went along with Klaus' plan because that's what I did. I trusted him completely and he felt it would be more dramatic if you thought I had been revived just for you. I think it worked, didn't it?"

"I guess, but why?"

"Like I said, he needed to gain your trust, even if it was just for a moment and by giving you something he felt you wanted, I think he did just that."

"So you haven't been in that coffin for 90 years?" Stefan asked, as the pieces began to fall together in his head.

"No, of course not." Rebekah said with a cute laugh.

"So, the rumors of you and Meredith Fell are true?"

Rebekah got to her feet at the mention of her name, "What do you know about that?"

"It's a small town Rebekah, I hear things." Stefan said, smiling ever so slightly at making Rebekah nervous, "So it's true? Are you working with her? Is Klaus involved?"

"My past with Meredith is none of your business." Rebekah said bluntly. She turned away from Stefan, trying to compose herself. Once she had, she turned back to him, "I am no longer working with my brother on anything, so if it's him you're after, then I suggest you talk to him about this."

"Klaus isn't going to tell me anything. I thought you wanted to help?"

"Don't try and guilt me into things, that's what Klaus does and I do not like it." Rebekah said angrily.

"Okay, how do you propose I ask the question then? Do you have any information on Meredith that might be helpful to me?"

"I am not going to discuss her, but I don't believe she's a threat to anyone in this town. You can't judge her by her family name. She's so much more advanced than they were. They had a singular vision about vampires, they hated them all and wanted them all dead. Meredith came to see that not all vampires are the same. Some just want to survive and some can live in society just like a regular person. In truth, that's all I ever wanted. To fit in and for a brief moment I had that with Meredith, but as that saying goes, all good things must come to an end."

"I can only go by what you just said, but it seems Meredith did something that upset you and you ended things? You didn't seek revenge? Even if you didn't, I would've thought Klaus would've."

"Klaus didn't know about us. That was the whole problem." Rebekah said, getting worked up just thinking about that time in her life, "She told him and I knew it would be the end of us, but she was convinced she could reason with my brother. She was wrong and he was not happy with either of us. He threatened to kill her if I didn't stop seeing her, so I had no choice. Even though he might've ended us for good, it was Meredith who set it all in motion and I still can't get past that."

"So what was she working with you two on?"

"Klaus found out that she was using vampire blood as a healing agent of some kind and he wanted to know if there were any other experiments of hers that might be useful to him."

"Was there?"

"No." Rebekah said, shaking her head frantically, "Most of her early work was spent trying to find the perfect way to kill vampires. It wasn't until a vampire saved her life that she began to question her belief that they all should die. Once she realized that we are all different, she changed her whole way of thinking and that included the things she was experimenting with."

"Who was this vampire that changed her life? Are they still alive?"

"No, but I believe you knew her. Her name was Rose and she knew our family, because she was running from Elijah for hundreds of years."

Stefan perked up at the mention of Rose's name, "That is interesting, but is there any way you could get me access to Meredith's lab? I've heard stories about it being one of the most influential laboratories in the country. Her family certainly has the money to allow her to do most anything she wants, but I need to know who's side she's on."

"As I told you, I don't believe she's a threat to anyone. She never liked Klaus and she never told him anything that he didn't already know. She's only alive because I made Klaus promise not to kill her. I may be upset with her, but I don't want her dead. As for her lab, I've never been in it, so I honestly don't know what she does in it."

"Would it be wrong to ask you to get in touch with Meredith again?"

"I'm not sure I'm ready for that." Rebekah said with a deep sigh, "I still have problems controlling my temper and when I think of her going behind my back and telling Klaus about us, I just get very angry and I don't want to hurt her, but I fear I might. Don't you ever feel that way? Hasn't Elena ever upset you?"

Stefan nodded his agreement, "Yes, and I understand how you feel. It takes a lot of will power to control those feelings, but this is important. Klaus is not working alone. He did not have the time to create all those other hybrids on his own. If he's not working with Meredith, maybe she has something that could help us stop Klaus."

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about Klaus, I have someone working on that as we speak."

Letting out a heavy sigh, Stefan sat down beside Rebekah, "That didn't work out the way you wanted. Klaus escaped. He momentarily stunned Vidar, but the potion didn't kill him and Vidar is still on the loose."

"What? How do you know this?" Rebekah wondered, stomping her feet at the unpleasant news, "I knew something was wrong when my people didn't get back to me."

"That's Damon's fault, he killed them. Now he's working with Vidar." Stefan said calmly, "I don't want to resort to blackmail, because that's just not my thing, but I can say that if you help us, I will make sure that Vidar doesn't follow through on his plan to kill you once Klaus is dead."

"You are more like Damon that I ever realized." Rebekah said with an angry smile, "I could kill you right now and then what?"

Stefan smiled at the statuesque blonde, "But you won't, because that's not who you want to be. I'm asking because I know you care about Elena. Elena is still in danger as long as Klaus and Vidar are free. I'm not sure what will get through to you, but I need an answer soon."

"Fine." Rebekah said, finally relenting to Stefan's wish, "I will contact Meredith, but after that it's out of my hands."

"That's all I want. I will do the rest." Stefan said with a polite nod and with that he turned and walked out the door.

**Mystic Grill**.

Caroline waited for Meredith to take her seat and then sat down across from her. She put her purse by her side and smiled at the attractive doctor, "I'm going to get right to the point here, I heard through the grapevine that you aren't all that happy with vampires in this world? Is that true?"

"I can tell just by looking at you, that you're one and I have no problem with you. Does that answer your question?" Meredith said, happily flashing her beautiful smile at Caroline.

"I'm not sure." Caroline said. She sat back in her chair and took a long look at Meredith, "Why don't you have a problem with me?"

"You haven't tried to kill me for starters. That's always a good thing." Meredith said with a big smile, "But, I've done my research and I don't think you pose a threat to the rest of the town, so no, I don't have a problem with all vampires, just certain ones."

"What about one named Rebekah?"

Meredith sat back in her chair and pondered he question for a lot longer than was needed before flashing her winning smile, "Are all you vampires online now, is that how you keep up with each other?"

Caroline laughed, "No, I'm not on speaking terms with Rebekah, but I hear you were?"

"Yes, we dated briefly, but it didn't work out. Is that why you asked to see me?"

"You must know that Rebekah is a very unpredictable vampire and one who also possesses great power and she's had a few unfortunate encounters with my friend Elena and I just worry about what she might do if she ever loses her cool. I guess I was hoping you might have a way of neutralizing her, for lack of a better term?"

"You mean kill her?" Meredith asked bluntly.

Smiling at Meredith's reply, Caroline nodded her head, "I didn't want to go there, but since you brought it up, don't you think Mystic Falls would be better off if her and her psychotic brother were dead?"

"Klaus is a very dangerous vampire, but I don't see Rebekah being anything like him." Meredith said as she took a sip of water, "Why haven't you mentioned Katherine Pierce? I hear she's dating Elena now, don't you think she's a bigger threat than Rebekah?"

"Sometimes I do, but she does seem to care about Elena and I don't think she'd ever hurt her. She's had many chances to do that and she hasn't. I don't like her and I don't trust her, but I don't think she'd hurt anyone that Elena considered a friend. But, if you know something about her that I don't, I'd like to know it."

"I know only what I've heard and been told by different associates. You've known her for a couple years, so you probably have a better idea of what she's capable of."

"That's not an answer. Just tell me what you know." Caroline snapped, the first sign of her losing her cool, "Stefan and Damon knew Katherine a 150 years ago, but then she was presumed dead, so there's a century of her life that they know nothing about and neither do we."

Meredith sipped her water and smiled at Caroline, "Well, you must know that Katherine didn't survive all this time without being a bit ruthless as well as creative. She did kill her fair share of humans over the years, but to be honest, most of those were in self-defense. However, there is one instance that makes me wonder."

"And why is that?"

"This is a second hand account of something that happened back in 1995 New York, but it's from a trusted source and if it's true it portrays Katherine as a cold blooded killer."

"As much as I want to be rid of her, I'm going to need a lot more information than that."

"Back in 1995 Katherine had established herself as the owner of a very popular night club called aptly enough, Doppelganger." Meredith said with a cute smile, "It was there that she met a woman named Rose, someone you are probably familiar with."

"I know of her, but I wasn't aware that Katherine knew her. But, nothing she does surprises me anymore. So what happened?"

"Rose and Katherine began a short, but torrid affair until someone from the club spotted them together. It happened to be one of the investor's in the club, a notorious mobster named Bucky Newton, he was pretty powerful on the east coast during the 90's and helped Katherine finance her club. What she didn't know was that it came with strings and one of them was she had to help launder money for him, which she didn't want to do, but figured it was a small price to pay for getting her club started, but the other price was that he was extremely possessive of Katherine, even though she made it clear she wasn't interested in him."

"Am I right to assume he's the one she killed?"

"No, she killed his son Brock."

"Oh. How and why?" Caroline inquired.

"Well, the how was simple, she broke his neck." Meredith said bluntly, "The why is known only to Katherine. From what she told Rose it was because she found out that Brock was going to kill her because her father didn't like idea of Katherine with another woman."

"If she did it to save Rose how is that cold blooded?"

"According to Bucky he never gave his son any such order, so as far as he was concerned, Katherine was lying and she pretty much had to shut down the club and leave the city. Bucky is still alive and still has a contract out on her. He doesn't know she's a vampire, but as long as he's alive she's in danger. Not to mention the police are after her as well, because she was considered the number one suspect, thanks to Bucky's other son, Bone. Yes, I did say Bone, that's really his name."

"Okay, what's your take on all this? Did Katherine have any other reason to want this Brock person dead?"

"That's where things get complicated. According to Rose, Brock was hitting on her on a daily basis and Katherine was getting very annoyed with him. Rose thought it was kind of cute, because at the time Brock was only about 18 or 19 and she didn't see him as a threat at all."

"How can you know what happened then?"

"I don't." Meredith replied swiftly, "Rose said she wanted to believe Katherine, but she felt bad that she liked Brock and couldn't picture him wanting to kill her. Only Katherine knows for sure."

Carline let out a sigh and sat back in her chair, "That's not enough to go to Elena with, but maybe I need to talk to Katherine about this."

"I wouldn't advise that." Meredith said, sounding more threatening than she intended. She quickly flashed her pearly white smile at Caroline, "Katherine isn't known for being a killer, but she does have a temper and that is not something you want to deal with."

"I'll take that under advisement." Caroline said with a cute nod. She looked into Meredith's eyes just a little longer than she wanted, finally turning away as she felt Meredith looking back at her, "Anyway, back to Rebekah, is there any chance you two could hook up again?"

"Oh, you think if she's got a girlfriend she'll stop with her curiosity towards Elena?"

"The thought had crossed my mind." Caroline said with a cute smile.

"She is not the forgiving kind. I went behind her back and I made things worse and I don't think she's ever going to get past that."

"That's too bad, but I had to ask." Caroline said. She smiled back at Meredith as she got to her feet, "I had fun talking to you. It felt so relaxed, like I'd known for years. I don't suppose you're single?"

"As a matter a fact I am."

"Since you dated one vampire, I suppose it wouldn't hurt to ask if you'd like to go out sometime?"

"I think I'd be open to that. I could use a break from work, so sure." Meredith smiled. She pulled out her business card and handed it to Caroline, "Call me."

Caroline took the card from the pretty doctor, letting her hand brush against Meredith's as she did, "I promise I will." She slid the card into her purse, smiled once more at Meredith and walked out of the bar.

**End of Chapter 4**.

Just a quick note, there will be 12 chapters to this story. It is complete and I will be adding a new chapter every day or two and there won't be more than two days between updates.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**.

**Rudolph Fell Warehouse Complex**

**Los Angeles, California**.

Klaus walked through the futuristic looking warehouse, studying each of his newly created hybrids carefully as the short, spectacled man gave him an extensive update on his overall project, "Your attention to detail is astounding, but I need to know when they will be ready."

"I realize you want a more exact date, but that is very hard to do, considering the delicate nature of the hybrids. There have been many side effects that we were unprepared for, but I believe we have things back on track now, as I said." The man said, stuttering a few times in his already broken English, his Russian accent taking over whenever had had to give Klaus bad news. As he saw the angry scowl on Klaus' face, he did his best to smile at him, "If I had to make a guess, I would say we're still a couple months away from completion."

"That's not what I wanted to hear." Klaus snapped. He paced back and forth in front of his hybrids, finally stopping to look at the terrified doctor, "How many are ready? I need to take a few with me to Mystic Falls."

"Well, I believe the majority are fully functional now, but there's still a handful that need more time to deal with the whole transformation process."

"That's the kind of thing I like to hear Sergei." Klaus said, his big smile quickly returning to his face, "I want 10 of them ready to leave by tomorrow morning. I assume they are not zombies and will be able to interact with the humans if need be?"

"Yes, they have been trained according to the mandate you set out. There should be no problems with them fitting in. They should also be able to pass the Vervain test as you ordered. They have built up enough of an immunity to make sure there is no reaction if in fact they do ingest some of it."

"Perfect. Okay, about that other thing I asked you about, can it be done?"

"That's really not my field of expertise, but I do know someone who is well respected in that field that would be more than willing to talk about it with you."

"You believe he will pass the loyalty test?" Klaus asked.

"Yes. I'm positive." Sergei nodded quickly, "He's always had a curiosity for the supernatural and he would be in awe meeting a hybrid such as yourself. I believe he would happily do your bidding."

"Alright then. Make it happen. Have him here in a week." Klaus said. He grabbed his favorite picture of Rebekah and let out a happy sigh, "My sweet sister is not going to keep me out of her life forever. If she needs some time adjusting, then so be it. Family must stay together at all times."

"Of course. I will make it happen. Is there anything else before I get back to work?"

"Ah yes, I almost forgot. I need you to get in touch with the medical board and have them revoke Meredith Fell's license to practice. She needs to be taught a lesson, but I may need her later, so I can't kill her."

Hesitating for much longer than he knew was wise, the elderly man trembled as he searched for the words to use, "Sir, you know that the Fell family is off limits to me. I have no power over them and nobody in the medical community will go against them. I'm sorry, but there's no way I could make that happen. She is more powerful than we first thought."

"What are you talking about? She's just a doctor." Klaus said, dismissing Sergei's warnings as quickly as he gave them, "She was supposed to be an ally, but she doesn't want that, but there are consequences for saying no to me and she needs to find that out."

"The Fell name is synonymous with the medical profession. While they may have started out as vampire hunters, they became one of the most influential families in the whole country. Meredith has made some very important friends in her short time on this earth. I would never tell you what to do, but I would urge you to look into her life further before you make any hasty decisions."

"Since I need you to continue this project I'm going to smile and take your advice for now. If it turns out to be true, you will be handsomely rewarded. If not, well, just be happy you lived as long as you have." Klaus said with a wicked smile.

"Yes sir." Sergei said with a shaky smile.

** Maidendorf's Motel, **

**Leona Valley, California**.

Damon stepped inside the small, but cozy room, closed the door and pulled out his cell phone. He watched as Vidar plopped his 7 foot frame on the small bed in the middle of the room and couldn't help but laugh as the bed collapsed and he fell to the floor in a massive heap, "Well, I guess we'll be sleeping on the floor tonight."

"Why does this world make such flimsy sleeping units?" Vidar yelled. He picked himself off the floor, dusted himself off and quickly made his way towards the even smaller sofa near the wall, "In my time we made things sturdy, but I don't like this new world. The buildings are big, the things you call cars are fast, but they seem to also be quite flimsy in their design. I don't want to live in this world. I just want to kill Klaus and then find a way back to my world."

"Good luck with that." Damon said with a smirk. He hovered over Elena's name on his phone, but chose a safer option and pushed Alaric's number instead.

Alaric picked up his phone and stepped out of the room, "How's the Klaus hunting coming along?"

"We're on this trail, but he's had a lot of time to prepare for this, so it's not going to be easy finding him. Actually, I'm just calling to check on Elena. How is she holding up?"

"She's doing okay. Her biggest concern right now is that Katherine has gone off on her own again."

"And you didn't stop her?"

"You know you don't stop Katherine." Alaric said, "She's just trying to find out more information about Vidar and Rebekah and now Meredith is involved in all this, so there's a lot of things going on in Elena's life right now, but she's doing okay considering."

"What does Meredith have to do with this?"

"I'm not sure yet, but she apparently had a relationship with Rebekah before Klaus arrived in Mystic Falls. They sought her out because of her research. Anyway, just the fact that she knows Klaus makes her a question mark. I don't trust her yet, but that's why Katherine is off to talk to her."

"Katherine isn't very good at talking. She's good at ordering people around or avoiding things, but talking is not her strong suit. You should've gone with her. She's going to screw things up, she always does. She may not instigate things like I do, but in her own annoying way, she causes just as many problems." Damon growled.

"Well, I'll keep an eye on her, but the sooner you can kill Klaus and Vidar the better. Elena deserves some peace and quiet. I know we don't approve of Katherine, but that's not our call. If that's what she wants, then I want her to have some happiness in her life."

"I'm never going to support them. So don't talk about them at all. I'm doing this for Elena, not Katherine." Damon said, his voice raising with each word. He smiled as a young boy walked by and turned back to his motel room and lowered his voice, "I do need some information though. See if you can find out if Klaus or any of his family own any property in LA. It's a huge city and I need to narrow down the search area."

"I can do that. I'll let you know what I find out."

"Thanks. Oh and have you talked to Stefan lately? I told him to get Tyler to LA. It's not a request. Klaus wants him here and it's our best chance of killing him. We can do it when we turn Tyler over."

"I haven't talked to him and he doesn't really check in with me, but I can see what I can do about it."

"Good." Damon said, while gently opening the door so he could step outside, "I need you to find out what can kill Vidar, because the potion didn't work. He may be working with me right now, but that's not going to last. He's not happy in this world and more importantly, I'm not happy having to babysit him. Find a way to kill him."

"I will do my best."

Vidar stepped in front of Damon as he turned around, "Why do you want to kill me? I spared your life? Is that what trust brings in this new world?"

"I know it sounded bad, but you have to understand that your reputation for killing anyone you work for or with makes it kind of hard to trust you as well."

"My past is not important. I don't know this world. I thought you were going to teach me about it. Did you lie?"

"No, it wasn't a lie. Maybe I stretched the truth a little, but I need Klaus dead before I start my job as a teacher."

"I would love to do that. It's what I live for." Vidar said, his enthusiasm for killing evident in every word he spoke, "Just bring me to him and I will tear him to shreds."

"Okay then. We are back on the same page. We kill Klaus and then I'll teach you whatever you want to know about this world."

"Don't betray me Damon. I can kill fast, but I can also kill you slowly and painfully, which is what will happen if you ever lie to me again. Now, let's go find a better place to stay. I want a sturdy bed to lie in tonight."

**Elena's Home**.

Caroline stopped outside Elena's bedroom, working up the nerve to knock on the door, but as she did she heard voices in the room. She leaned in close to the door and tried to make out what was being said and by whom.

"You can't keep this from Katherine, but if she finds out we're going to have a vampire bitchfest and someone is going to get hurt."

"Do you think I don't know that?" Elena asked, "Rebekah came right out and told me she had feelings for me, but I thought she would move on once I told her I was with Katherine, but I guess not. I need to have another talk with her and get her to stop sending me things."

Rushing into the room, Caroline shook her head at Elena, "You're not going anywhere."

"What? Were you spying on us?"

"No. Not spying." Caroline assured with a guilty smile, "I came up here to talk to you about Rebekah, but it seems you haven't been keeping me up to date on your latest admirer."

"It's nothing." Elena said, turning away from Caroline while cringing at the thought of having to explain away another vampire problem to her friend. She managed to put on a smile as she turned around, "I think Rebekah is just lonely and she's projecting that on me right now. It'll pass. I'm sure of it."

"Really? What exactly did she do?"

"She sent me a letter." Elena said so softly Caroline barely heard her. She continued to talk in a very soft tone, wishing she could disappear, but she couldn't, "It was a very personal letter and it was actually really sweet, but I told her I couldn't be with her. What if she doesn't take no for an answer? Nobody here can stop her, can they?"

"What if you weren't with Katherine, would you consider dating Rebekah?" Caroline wondered.

"That's exactly what she asked and I told her I couldn't answer that, because I am dating Katherine so it's not an issue."

"That's not a denial either. So you do like Rebekah like that, right?" Caroline asked, getting moderately excited at the possibilities swelling about in her head, "She just happened to be stabbed and out of commission while you were off with Katherine. I actually feel sorry for her now and that's saying a lot."

Elena shook her head in dismay, "You make it sound like I was cheating on her."

"Well, let me ask you this, when you went to see her that night what were you feeling leading up to the point you stabbed her? Was she wrong to think you felt something for her?"

"I'm not going to discuss that." Elena yelled, refusing to make eye contact with Caroline, "It's in the past. What's done is done and I can't worry about what if's."

"I'll take that as a yes." Caroline said with a cute smirk, "So, just what kind of letter did she write you?"

Shaking her head at Caroline's question, Elena gave her friend the evil eye, "Oh god. I'm not letting you read it. You would take any reason to break me and Katherine up."

"It was that good huh?" Caroline smirked.

"Caroline, you need to let this go." Bonnie said, getting in between her two friends.

"Either you tell me or I find out from Rebekah, because that's where I'm going next."

Elena let out an annoyed sigh and did her best to show no emotion, "She just expressed her feelings in words. I already knew everything she said, so it's no big deal."

"Then let me read it." Caroline demanded.

Bonnie let out a sigh and looked at Elena, "You might as let her, you know she's not going to stop."

Elena walked over to her bed, lifted up her pillow and pulled out the letter and handed it to Caroline, "You read this to yourself and I don't want to hear any comments when you're finished."

"How about one before I start?" Caroline asked, doing her best not to smile too much, "You kept this under your pillow? That seems like you wanted it close by. I wonder why."

"Oh would you stop it." Elena yelled.

"Sorry." Caroline said with a guilty smile. She walked over to the window and began to read the letter. Every few moments she'd let out a gasp or an awe or some other verbal acknowledgement that she was enjoying every word she was reading. When she was done, she handed it back to Elena and did her best not to say anything.

"Thank you." Elena said as she took the letter from Caroline, "Now, can we please change the subject?"

"Oh I can't do this. That was such a beautiful letter." Caroline said, all smiles as she turned to Elena, "There's no doubt that Rebekah's feelings are real. How could you read that and not want to rush over there and kiss her all over? I mean, if anyone wrote something that amazing for me, I'd marry them on the spot."

"Well, then you go marry her." Elena shot back.

Caroline grinned, "Funny, but she didn't write it for me, but it sure makes me see her in a different light."

"Back to the problem at hand." Elena said, doing her best to stay focused, "If I don't tell Katherine about the letter I have a feeling Rebekah will and all hell will break loose. If I do tell Katherine about Rebekah, she's not only going to get upset at Rebekah, she's going to start grilling me about why Rebekah has these feelings in the first place. There's no way this is going to end well."

"I fully agree with that, but on the plus side, you have two women who are willing to fight to the death for you, so that's kind of romantic, well, except the death part." Caroline grinned.

"Caroline, you're not helping." Bonnie groaned.

"Okay then. I'll go, but I do have a bit of information about both Rebekah and Katherine, if you're interested." Caroline said, knowing they couldn't resist.

"Just tell us what you know."

"Well, it seems Rebekah isn't the innocent girl you think she is. She has dated before and she's got pretty good taste. Dr. Fell is a very beautiful woman, not to mention incredibly smart."

Elena shook her head in disbelief, "I don't understand why she'd lie about something so meaningless. I know Klaus is a control freak, but to think he could control her for 400+ years seems impossible."

Caroline shrugged, "Maybe she wanted to appear sweet and innocent to you, because she thinks you like that kind of thing."

"Why though?"

Caroline shrugged, "I don't have all the details, but I do know that Meredith confirmed that she was with Rebekah for a couple months, so there goes the virginal act. Like I ever believed that."

"What did you find out about Katherine?" Elena asked, ignoring Caroline's colorful commentary.

"Oh, just that she might've killed someone in cold blood and that she's wanted for murder in New York, so it's only a matter of time before that catches up to her. You can't be surprised by this Elena, we all knew she was a killer and now we have the proof."

"You're enjoying this aren't you?" Elena asked angrily, "Does it even bother you at all that you've spent all this time trying to insult two women that I care about?"

"I thought you cared about me and Bonnie to?"

"Oh that's got nothing to do with this." Elena said, "I knew you probably would never accept us together, but to go out of your way to try and ruin things between us, that's just not something I'm going to forget."

"Hold on here, I didn't go out of my way." Caroline said, quickly defending her actions, "I went to talk to Meredith and she told me this. Maybe I do enjoy being right about Katherine and Rebekah, but that doesn't mean I want to hurt you. I just want you to open your eyes. They are not who you think they are. They are liars and killers."

"And you're not?" Elena snapped.

"That's nice Elena, attack me now." Caroline said, her anger growing by the second, "I'm not the enemy. I'm your friend and always will be. Yes, I'm a vampire now, but I'm not like them. I'm not. I'm in control and I would never hurt you. Ever."

"I shouldn't have said, but I have nothing to say to you right now." Elena said, barely looking at Caroline as she turned her attention to Bonnie. "I'll talk to you later."

Bonnie waited for Elena to go back downstairs before closing the bedroom door and staring daggers at Caroline, "What do you think you proved just now?"

"That Elena has bad taste in lovers."

"That's not your call." Bonnie said loudly, "All you did was make things worse, as usual. Elena is going through a tough time right now. She's with a woman we don't trust and she's dealing with Rebekah who is unpredictable and we know there's some powerful vampire out there who could be a threat to her and her family, I just don't think she needs to more to deal with right now. Your timing was awful."

"You're wrong." Caroline growled, "The sooner she realizes the truth the better. I just speeded up the process, because eventually she would learn the truth, but it might be too late by then. At least now she has a chance to escape before things get worse. Don't pretend you are happy with any of this."

"I'm not, but I know that if you back someone into a corner they are going to come out fighting and that will be worse for everyone. Do you want Elena to run away with Katherine? Where we can't keep an eye on things, because that's what I see happening now."

"She wouldn't do that." Caroline said, sounding anything but sure of herself, "She wouldn't leave Jeremy like that."

Bonnie shook her head vehemently, "Oh yes she would, because she knows he's safer here. He's got Alaric to watch out for him and we're still here, so if she left we might never see her again."

"I won't let that happen. I'll fix this."

**End of Chapter 5**.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**.

** Meredith Fell's Home**.

At the top of a long and winding driveway Rebekah's driver parked her car and helped her out of the limo. She smiled at the sight of Meredith's sprawling mansion and walked up to the front door and pushed the heart shaped doorbell and waited.

Meredith answered the door wearing nothing but a flimsy bathrobe, "Rebekah, I didn't know you were coming by."

"I need to talk to you about some things. Can I come in?"

"Of course." Meredith said, stepping aside to Rebekah could enter her home, "Is this about Klaus?"

"It's about a lot of things, Klaus is just one of them." Rebekah said as she looked around the dimly lit foyer, "It's strange seeing you again. I've tried to erase your memory from my head, but I never could. You look as beautiful as ever."

"Thank you. So do you." Meredith said with a partial smile, "You never took any of my calls and you wouldn't let me explain why I did what I did, so I was sure I'd never see you again."

"I don't deal well with betrayal." Rebekah said as calmly as she could, "I wanted to kill you when I heard about what you did. That's how I get when I'm upset. I had to stay away or I would've done something I know I would've regretted. I did that because I cared about you a lot and it was the only way to control these thoughts I was having."

"So should I be afraid now or?" Meredith asked with a cute grin.

"I'm past that now." Rebekah said with a slight smile, "I understand what you were thinking, but I still don't like that you went behind my back. That's something I don't think I can ever get past."

"Oh, so you're not here to talk about us at all?"

"I'm sorry, but I can't do that. I don't hate you, but with everything that's happened, I don't feel the same way either. I didn't mean for that to happen, it just did." Rebekah said, her heart dropping as she saw the look of disappointment on Meredith's face, "I hope we can still talk about other things, but if you don't feel like it I will understand. I did not come here to make you unhappy, but there are things going on that could affect you as much as me."

"I'm fine. You were honest and I have to deal with that." Meredith said, putting on a brave front, "Anyway, whatever you need just let me know and I'll do my best to help."

"Thank you." Rebekah said with a relieved smile, "I asked you about Vidar when we first met and you agreed the potion should kill him, but it didn't. He found a cure and that's not good for anyone. Do you have any other ideas about how to kill him?"

"He can still be killed with a simple beheading. I know he's strong and powerful, but he can't survive that. I think I might have ways to neutralize him long enough to finish him off." Meredith said. She walked towards the west exit and motioned for Rebekah to follow, "My lab is down this hall and in the other wing of the house."

Rebekah smiled and followed Meredith through her home, admiring the strange but unique paintings on the wall and equally strange sculptures that adorned most every cabinet or shelf. She watched as Meredith used an electronic device to open the final steel door and reluctantly stepped inside the futuristic looking laboratory.

Meredith walked right into the middle of the room, brimming of pride at her creation, "Well, this is where I spend a lot of my time. I know it must seem kind of boring to you, but I'm always happiest when I'm working down here."

"You've done a lot of good things here. How did you end up with this passion for research?"

"It's been in my family's history for centuries. I told you that my family has wanted to rid the world of all things supernatural, starting with vampires, but once I realized that you are all different in your own way, I began to change my priorities. I used to only focus on how to kill vampires, but now I've been looking into how to change their killing ways."

"Is that even possible?"

"Yes." Meredith said with an excited smile, "Some vampires have done just that for years. Stefan had kept his feeding under control for decades, so it is possible, but there are other ways of controlling it and that's what I've been working on. If you didn't have that intense need for blood, it's possible for you to live a more normal life."

"I would love that. But how?" Rebekah asked.

"That's what I'm working on." Meredith said as she walked slowly towards a large computer screen, pushed a few keys and stood back as a diagram appeared on the screen, "It's connected to your brain. When you become a vampire so much of your biology changes, even your DNA changes. The hard part is that when most vampires die they don't leave a corpse behind to study. So I have to work with living vampires and I don't really have a lot of subjects to work with."

Feeling just a bit nervous at where the conversation was headed, Rebekah stepped behind one of the workbenches, "I hope you weren't thinking of using me as one of your subjects."

"No. I would never do that." Meredith said, happy to reassure her pretty and powerful ex. "Besides, you'd kill me before I could do anything, so you have nothing to worry about. I promise. Anyway, what I would like to do is to run some tests on you. Just normal regular tests. Even though your heart isn't beating and your organs aren't functioning, they still have an impact on your personality. Your brain can be adjusted, but I need more information."

"I don't know." Rebekah said as she quickly surveyed her surroundings, "I don't feel comfortable right now and I tend to get angry when that happens."

"Can't you look into my eyes and see that I'm telling the truth?" Meredith said, taking a few steps towards Rebekah, "I would never make the mistake of lying to you again. I need a sample of your brain tissue as well as some other more routine tests."

After studying Meredith for a long time, Rebekah let out a relieved sigh, "If it helps I will do this. Please don't try anything. I don't want to hurt you, but I will."

"I swear I won't do anything stupid."

"Then okay, what do I have to do?"

"Very little really." Meredith said, " I'll need you to lie down on that table over there and I will get to work. It won't take long. You won't have to be put under for this, because you're not human and I'm not even sure it would work, but it should be painless to you.

**Rudolph Fell Warehouse Complex**

**Los Angeles, California**.

Klaus picked up is phone, checked the number on the piece of paper and placed the call. He sat back down in his favorite chair and waited for a reply.

"Hello?"

"Elena, it's nice to hear your lovely voice again." Klaus said as he sipped his wine, "I hear through the grapevine that you've been in contact with my sister. I'd like to ask a favor of you, if you're interested?"

"No, I don't want anything to do with you. Why would you even call me?"

"Have you seen Jeremy lately?"

It didn't take but a second for Elena to jump to her feet, her face white as ghost as she rushed through her house calling out her brother's name over and over, but to no avail. Once she'd searched he entire house she put the phone back to her ear, "I will kill you myself if you do anything to my brother."

"You've got me all wrong again. I mean your brother no harm." Klaus protested with a big smile, "I know how important family is to you. I do however know where he is and what he's about to do. I have two choices. I can either stop him or do nothing, but in that case he will die. Now, do you think one tiny favor is worth your brother's life?"

"I don't believe you. He was here earlier." Elena said, frantically looking around the room, "He couldn't have gone far and he's protected from anything you could do to him."

"I'm not the threat Elena, he is. He's still angry about life in general. He's lost so much over the years. First your parents, then Vicki, then Jenna, then Bonnie and finally Tyler turned on him. Do you think he's really adjusting well to all this?"

"What are you talking about? What do you know about him?"

"He's developed a bit of death wish. He feels immortal, but at the same time he longs to die. He wants to be with his family. He knows you don't need him anymore. You have Stefan, Damon, Bonnie, Caroline, Alaric and your new love, Katherine, so he feels like he doesn't belong anywhere. And right now he's headed down a path that you won't be able to save him from."

"No, he's good kid." Elena argued.

"Stop being naïve Elena." Klaus scolded, "He's a very unhappy young man right now and depression has taken over and you were too busy to notice it, you all were. He may be safe from a supernatural death, but he's not safe from any other kind of death."

"I hate you so much. What do you want?"

"I need you to bring Rebekah to me." Klaus answered, "She is angry and I understand that, but I can't live without her. She's my family and you need to make her see that. If you do, I will make sure Jeremy lives a long happy life."

"I have no say in what Rebekah does." Elena said, "I betrayed her. I stabbed her. She doesn't even like me anymore."

"I will not stand for lies." Klaus yelled, "I know my sister had a thing for you. I saw it with my own eyes. I tried to stop it, but she's a very stubborn woman. She will listen to you, as long as you make her. You just need to bring her here and your part is done."

"You can't undo what you did to your mother. She is never going to forgive you."

"That's my business." Klaus yelled, "Do we have a deal, because Jeremy is moving closer to the edge as we speak?"

"What is he doing? How do you know?"

"I need you alive Elena. It's in my best interest to know everything about you and your family. Jeremy has become involved with a rather unsavory group of people. His death wish has pushed him to try and make his death happen. He's on his way to an appropriately titled death match as we speak. But, he doesn't want to win. He wants to lose and he will if I don't stop the fight."

"Stop it. I'll do what you say. Do not let him die."

"He won't." Klaus said calmly, smiling widely when he got his wish, "I expect to hear a progress report shortly."

Elena slammed her phone down on the table, shattering it into a thousand little pieces.

Bonnie walked into the room as the pieces hit the floor and rushed over to her best friend, "What's going on?"

"Have you seen Jeremy?" Elena asked frantically.

"He said he was going out. He said he had a fun night planned."

"Oh god." Elena groaned, "Did he say where he was going? Did he look different? Did he act different?"

"He gave me a big hug and told me to tell you he loved you, but I didn't think anything of it at the time. Why are you so upset?" Bonnie asked.

"He was saying goodbye. OMG, Klaus was right. How could I have missed this."

"What did you miss?" Bonnie asked, still puzzled by Elena's rather sudden hysteria.

"It doesn't matter. When Jeremy comes home tonight we need to talk to him. I've been neglecting him and I can't do that anymore.

**Meridian Pier  
**

**Los Angeles, CA**.

Katherine walked up to the large, beautifully designed yacht, hopped up and began looking around. She pulled open the cabin doors and took the short flight of stairs down until she was in the even more extravagant looking bar. With her exceptional hearing, she heard the faintest of footsteps and spun around in a flash. She let out a laugh as she saw her old friend Lucy standing in front of her holding out a glass of champagne. Katherine took the glass and sat down on the leather sofa and took a quick sip, "Well, I see life is treating you well."

Lucy sat down beside Katherine and put her feet up on the coffee table, "I can't complain. So, what brings you here?"

"I think you probably know. You always seem to have your eyes and ears open. I need information about Dr Meredith Fell."

"That's not someone I should be talking about." Lucy said, putting her glass on the table and becoming noticeably nervous.

"Do you mind telling me why?"

"She's not what she appears to be." Lucy said, sounding very cryptic as she continued, "Meaning, if you look on the outside and from a distance, she's just a very pretty doctor, however truth be told, she might be the most powerful person in Mystic Falls."

Smiling in disbelief, Katherine slid in close to Lucy, "Are you just messing with me?"

Getting to her feet in a huff, Lucy shook her head vigorously, "No. I wouldn't do that. I can give you the basics on Meredith, but anything else is putting my life in danger."

"I don't understand. Is she not human?"

"It is possible for humans to possess a great deal of power, even if it's not physical power. She's a prodigy. She was in advanced learning classes since she was 3 years old. She graduated high school at 14. She got her first master's degree at 19. She got multiple degrees after that, including her medical license."

"Okay, so she's a smart cookie." Katherine said, anything but impressed, "Why are you acting like she's the devil or worse?"

"I don't fear death from her. I fear retribution and in some cases that can be worse than death. That's the kind of power she wields. She has the ultimate power, she controls people. Money controls people and she has more money than most countries."

"Still not following." Katherine said, twiddling her thumbs as she waited for Lucy to speed things up.

"I don't know how much you know about her, but she lost her parents at a young age, was tormented by the same vampire who killed them and she vowed at that moment, at 11 years old, that she would never be afraid again. I believe she's kept that promise to herself." Lucy reached over and took another sip from her glass, "She eventually found and killed the vampire responsible for her parents' death, but she wasn't content with that. She wanted to continue her families' legacy, which was to rid the world of vampires."

"Some of that sounds vaguely familiar, but if she's just a human, I'm not going to worry about her. If need be, I'll kill her, but if she's not a threat, then I'll simply ignore her."

"Katherine, she may not be a threat right now, but anyone with that kind of power is in danger of being corrupted. She has noble ideas, but if she gets mixed up with the wrong people, all her power could be used for evil."

"So what do you want me to do, become her friend and hold her hand so she stays happy all the time?" Katherine said with a sarcastic smile.

"You really should take this more seriously." Lucy growled, "Look, she might've changed her attitude towards vampires, but she's still spent most of her life searching for ways to kill them. She found ways to kill them. That alone makes her a threat to every vampire around. To her credit, she's also spent as much time trying to help vampires, but again, she's amassed so much power so quickly it's just a recipe for disaster."

"I can't go on a hunch. I need facts. I need something tangible. This is about Elena. Do you think she'd ever hurt a human?"

"I can't say for sure." Lucy shrugged, "Probably not, but you'd still be better off getting on her good side. Keep her close, make sure she doesn't start hanging out with any undesirables and while you're at it, find out everything you can about her research."

"I could do that, but it sounds pretty boring. Elena might enjoy that more than I would. Do you think it's safe for Elena to hang out with our pretty doctor?"

"As of now I would say yes. I think Meredith still has a pure heart and as long as it stays that way she could be a very good asset."

"I like the sounds of that. I wonder if she could find a way to kill Vidar or Klaus. I bet she'd love to try."

"Make sure you meet her in public the first time. Don't startle her, she's also trained in many forms of martial arts and while you may be powerful, she knows how to kill a vampire so keep that in mind."

"She sounds like my kind of girl." Katherine said with an intrigued smile.

"Just be careful."

"Yes mommy" Katherine said with a big smile. She reeled in her smile as Lucy shook her head at her. After getting a slight smile out of Lucy, she continued, "Oh, while I have you here, I have one other question. I'm sure you know about Klaus and Rebekah, but I need something juicy on her. I know she has a squeaky clean image, but that can't be the truth. She seems a little too interested in Elena and I don't like it. I don't know if she wants to kill her or kidnap her or what, but if I could show Elena that she's just a tall, blonde, psychotic bitch, that would really help me out."

Smiling at Katherine's request, Lucy could do nothing more than shrug, "I'm sorry, but I don't think Klaus allowed her to run wild like that. Her relationship with Meredith was short lived and I don't have any details about it, but other than doing what her brother asked, she really does have a spotless background."

"Well, I guess I'll have to think of something else then. Anyway, I should get back then. It was great seeing you again." Katherine gave Lucy a warm hug and then vanished in a flash as she headed back to Mystic Falls.

**End of Chapter 6**.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**.

**Meredith's Fell's Home**.

Elena walked up to the massive estate, pushed the doorbell and took a few steps back. She backed up another few steps as she heard voices behind the door. Moments later Rebekah stepped out with Meredith beside her.

Rebekah smiled the instant she saw Elena, all but forgetting Meredith was standing beside her, "I didn't expect to see you here. Do you know Meredith?"

"No. I found out that you were here and I really couldn't wait to talk to you. It's kind of important."

Turning to Meredith, Rebekah smiled and leaned in for a friendly hug, "I hope that I could help you in some way today. I'm happy you made the tests painless, that was a real plus."

"You helped more than you know. Thank you so much for coming by." Meredith said, giving Rebekah a warm hug, "I really enjoyed seeing you again."

"Well, I plan on sticking around for a while, so I'm sure we'll run into each other very soon. Goodbye Meredith."

"Goodbye Rebekah." Meredith added, smiling politely at Elena as she stepped back into her lavish home.

Rebekah quickly put her arm around Elena's waist and walked her down the long driveway, "So what's so important you tracked me down like this?"

"It's about your brother." Elena said, cringing at what she knew was coming.

Once again Rebekah surprised her by not reacting at all, "I can almost guess where this is going. Klaus has blackmailed you into doing his bidding, by asking you to put in a good word for him or asking you to deliver me to him. Is this where put another dagger in my back?"

"No. I'm not going to do that." Elena said, "He helped Jeremy out of a bad situation and now I owe him. I don't know how to get out of it. But yes he wants you to talk to him. That's all he asked me to do. I know I have no right to ask you anything, but it would mean a lot to me if you could do that. My slate would be clean with him and I would owe you so much more."

Smiling at the very thought of Elena's proposal, Rebekah leaned up against her silver Mercedes, "It would be so easy to take advantage of this situation. You must know that you left yourself open to most anything I could ask. Why did you do that?"

"I don't have much choice."

"You didn't wait for my answer, yet you willingly offered to do anything for me. Again you puzzle me." Rebekah said, crossing her long legs as she reached into her purse, "I should tell you something that I neglected to mention before and I feel bad about it. I don't like this feeling and I don't like that I kept something from you, so I need to tell you that I have dated before. Not a lot, but I was with Meredith for a brief moment in time. I don't know why I told you I had never dated."

"Thank you, but it's really none of my business. I appreciate you clearing that up. She's a very beautiful woman. I hear she's incredibly smart as well."

"Well, I don't want to talk about her right now." Rebekah pulled out a small notebook and handed it to Elena, "I write down many things in my diary, but a few weeks ago some of the pages had been ripped out. They were all dedicated to you. I feel a bit uncomfortable telling you this, but I think it might've been Klaus."

"Were there letters in that diary about me?"

"Yes. Did you take them?"

"No. No." Elena said shaking her head, "But someone put them in my mailbox the other day. I thought it was you."

"I would never do that. They were private." Rebekah said, quickly denying Elena's accusation, "I was told to write down my feelings because it was supposed to help me, but it really didn't. It just made them stronger. You must think I'm crazy feeling this way about someone who stabbed me and who's with another woman right now, but I am trying not to lie to people anymore. I just don't know how Klaus could've found them. He was not invited into my new house. But he does have a lot of people who are willing to do it for him."

"It seems as though someone was trying to cause trouble for us, but it doesn't feel like something Klaus would do. He doesn't seem to be the subtle type."

"I agree, but I don't know who else would do this." Rebekah said with a shrug. She paced back and forth in front of Elena, her mind working a mile in a minute until she finally stopped and looked back at Elena, "I want to say so much to you, but I'm sure you don't want to hear it, so I will go take care of my brother and your slate will be clean with him. You will not owe me anything. I don't want that." She smiled and turned to walk away.

Elena let out a sigh and chased after her. She stopped just behind her, reached out and grabbed Rebekah by the arm, "I'm sorry about all this. You are being so nice right now and I feel like I'm hurting you and that's not my intention. I don't know what to say to you, because I'm guessing it's not going to help, but I do like you. I think under different circumstances everything might've turned out different for us."

"Why do you keep talking about what might've been? Do you ever think about that? For us?" Rebekah asked, her bright smile quickly returning to her beautiful face.

"I sure walked into that one." Elena said with a slight smile. "I keep putting my foot in my mouth when all I'm trying to do is make this better. Maybe I should just shut up and say thank you."

"I see." Rebekah said with another heavy sigh, "Why is it so difficult to tell me the truth? It's clear that you cared about me before and I think you still do. Are you going to deny that?"

"It's not about denying things." Elena said, doing her best to spin her way out of another awkward situation, "You can't live in the past Rebekah. Life isn't about what if's or what might've been's, it's about now. And right now I'm with Katherine and I'm happy. Nothing else matters. I'm sorry, but if I answer your question it's only going to give you false hope."

"You just answered it and I don't feel any hope at all. I know the truth. I can accept it. I'm not pleased by it, because I don't believe that Katherine will keep you happy." Rebekah said, not even trying to hide her disappointment, "I know all about her. She's a liar and she can't be trusted. In time you will find that out, but I just hope she doesn't break your heart before you do."

"I don't want to talk about her." Elena said shaking her head and turning away from Rebekah. She took a few seconds to compose herself and then turned and smiled at Rebekah, "I appreciate you helping me out and I meant what I said, if there's anything I can do just ask. I should probably get home, so I hope you have a good night and I'm sure we'll talk again soon."

"Very well. Goodbye Elena." Rebekah said with a half-smile. She got into her fancy car and sped off in a flash.

Meredith stepped out of her house the moment Rebekah drove away, jogging briskly down the long driveway until she was standing beside Elena's car. She motioned for Elena to roll down her window and once she had she knelt down beside her, "I was hoping you'd have some time to talk. I have some information about Klaus that I think you might want to hear."

"I really should get home now, but could we set something up for tomorrow?"

"I'm going to be in surgery for most of the day and I'd really like to talk to you personally. If you'd like to wait that's okay."

"I guess I can spare a few minutes." Elena said, the curiosity getting the better of her once again. She removed the keys from the ignition, opened her car door and walked back up the long driveway yet again.

**Marshek Point.**

**19 miles SE of Mystic Falls**.

Alaric slipped through the rough hillside until he came up to the familiar crack in the otherwise solid rock. He tapped the rock in a strange but rhythmic pattern and then stood back and watched as a portal appeared in front of him. He stepped inside and in a flash he appeared 3 miles deep in the rock, standing beside his number one source of information, "Well, that never feels good."

"Welcome Alaric. It's good to see you again." The beautiful brunette said with a warm hug, "I thought you said you'd have a guest with you?"

"It's good to see you again to Miranda. You look stunning as always." Alaric said with a smile, "I called Rebekah and gave her instructions on how to get here. I assume you'll be able to sense when she arrives."

"Yes, but I do wonder if it's wise to bring her here."

"She has many questions about her life. I didn't promise her any answers. That is up to you."

"Well, I am anxious to speak to her. I have known Esther for hundreds of years, it will be interesting to see her daughter."

"I came here because things are getting out of hand with Elena and I need some help dealing with it. Specifically a vampire named Vidar. I need him dead and so far nothing seems to work."

"That's because he's been spelled. He's protected by a very powerful witch." Miranda said, slinking past Alaric and over to her multitiered laboratory, pulling a small vial from the top shelf, "The one thing about witches is that they are very good at covering their own asses. Whoever spelled Vidar, also made him vulnerable to something else. I've been looking into the history of his time and there's only two witches powerful enough to have cast such spells on him. One was an evil shaman named Keklar and the other was an herbalist named Larindea. I don't believe the shaman would ever help a vampire, they don't get along, but Larindea, while being mostly a healer by nature, also knew dark magic."

"She can't be alive now, right?" Alaric asked.

"No, but her spirit is. If she is the one who cast the spell I will contact her, but you must understand that risks that come with such a request."

"What do you mean?"

"The spirit world is a dangerous place. Messing with death can have dire consequences. Evil doesn't just appear, it's usually brought on by someone messing with the spirit world. If someone leaves the spirit world, they will take over the soul of a human and will proceed to wreak havoc until they are killed again."

"Then maybe you shouldn't do this. Is there any other way to find out what Vidar is vulnerable to?"

"It's been centuries since this happened, so unless she wrote it down somewhere, this is the only way to find out."

"How can she have power if she's dead?"

"Only a select few have knowledge of the spirit world and the power to do something about it. Larindea is one of those people. Would you be willing to come into the spirit world with me?"

"Of course." Alaric replied without hesitation, "Whatever you need."

"Okay, it will take time to set up the link, but I need to prepare you for what you're about to go through." Miranda said as she took Alaric by the arm and led him into a side room.

**Molten Fire Night Club**

**Los Angeles, CA**.

Damon flashed some money at the bouncer, who happily waved him and Vidar inside. He looked around the jam packed club, searching for his enigmatic brother, finally spotting him where he fit in the best, alone at the back. He fought his way through the crowd, letting out a relieved sigh as he sat down beside his expressionless brother, "I see you're having a blast as usual."

"I didn't come here to party." Stefan said calmly, "We have a job to do. What did you find out from Alaric?"

"A whole bunch of witch mumbo jumbo, but I think the best way to kill Klaus is with a big thick metal axe slicing off that smug little head of his."

Vidar smiled at the thought, "I will be happy to have his head in my hands where it belongs."

"Klaus isn't stupid. He's lived for all these years for a reason. He's not just going to stand still and let us kill him, so what are the other options?" Stefan asked.

Damon sat forward, "Alaric is working on a lot of things right now, but he has nothing that will help us kill Klaus. I think between the three of us we can kill him. He can't duck three blades for long. Law of averages says one of us takes his head off."

"What if he kills us first? Then who's going to protect Elena?"

"Probably Katherine and Rebekah, plus Bonnie might be the best defense she has. Alaric is no slouch and he'll do whatever it takes to protect her, so let's not worry about things that haven't happened yet." Damon said, taking a long hard look at his brother, "Are you afraid to fight Klaus?"

"I'm not afraid, but your plan is flawed." Stefan snapped, "Chances are Klaus would kill us first and then he'd find a way to deal with Vidar later on."

"Well, what do you suggest then? Giving up?" Damon said with a sarcastic grin.

"No, but Klaus does have other weaknesses, his family being a huge one. I say we use Rebekah against him." Stefan said.

Damon smiled at the thought, "Well, she did hire Vidar to kill him, so she clearly wants him dead, but I don't trust her. They're still family and if he has a chance to talk to her, then he'll manipulate her and then we'll have two originals after us."

"I didn't mean 'ask' Rebekah to help, I meant 'use her'. "Stefan said with a hint of a smile, "He wouldn't risk Rebekah's death for anything. We just need to incapacitate her for a while, show Klaus that we have her and will kill her unless he agrees to take his hybrids and moves to Europe or something."

Damon bobbed his head as he thought over Stefan's plan, taking a long drink before he sat back and replied, "Okay, in theory it's not bad, but have you thought about the reality that once Klaus gets Rebekah back he's not going to live up to his end of the bargain?"

"My thinking is that Klaus is at his most vulnerable when his family is danger, so Rebekah is still our best hope."

"Speaking of hope, weren't you supposed to bring Tyler here?" Damon asked.

"I did." Stefan said with little or no expression.

Damon mocked looking around the room before zooming back in on his brother, "Where is he?"

"He's in the trunk." Stefan said calmly.

Smiling at his brother's rare bit of humor, Damon couldn't help but laugh, "I take it he didn't come willingly?"

"No, he's still trying to break the sire bond, but we needed him here before that happened."

"So, who knows how to get in touch with our favorite hybrid?"

"I can, but are we ready?" Stefan questioned, "Just bringing him Tyler isn't going to change anything. It's going to buy us a small amount of time, but right now we're in his element. Whatever he's planning he's been doing it for years, if not decades, so we need to get him somewhere we call home and I don't mean Mystic Falls."

"Well, we spent a lot of time in Chicago, do you still have your home there?" Damon asked.

"Yes. I have a friend house sitting, but it's not really isolated. I was thinking of somewhere in the mountains, away from people."

"There is that witch Alaric always talks about. She's supposed to be in the mountains somewhere."

"No. I do not like witches." Vidar chirped in, "The one who made me invulnerable to vampires and werewolves also cursed me. I don't trust them and they are very hard to kill."

"As long as you don't do anything stupid she isn't going to be a problem." Damon said, patting the large man on his back, "You need to learn that you will be stronger with allies. You might've been able to rule the world on your own 100 years ago, but that's not possible anymore."

"I wish to go back in time, to my world again. I don't like it here." Vidar said with a disappointing groan, "How do I do that?"

Stefan looked at Damon who tried not to laugh, but quickly turned towards Vidar, "A witch is your only hope of going back in time, but I don't know if that's possible or not."

Vidar smashed his large hand on the table, "If there's a witch who can do this I wish to meet her."

"Not yet big guy." Damon said, "You need to kill Klaus first and then we'll work on sending you back in time."

"You haven't brought me to him yet, perhaps you should be working harder at that instead of sitting in this filthy place with half naked women running around."

"He has a point." Stefan added with a subtle smirk.

"Right he does." Damon said. He got to his feet and marched out of the club.

Stefan led the way back to his car, where he promptly flipped the lid on the trunk and walked over to where Tyler lay squirming as hard as he could to break out of the chains wrapped around him. Stefan looked over at his brother, "Where did Klaus tell you to bring him?"

"I'm sure he'll send me another message soon. He's been doing it on an hourly basis for the last 12 hours." Damon said, "What's the plan? He's not going to come alone and if he has hybrids then we might need more than the three of us to take him out."

"Isn't that what Alaric is working on?"

"Yes, but we can't wait forever." Damon said. He took a long look at Tyler and his mind began racing. He leaned down, pulled the gag down from Tyler's mouth and stared at the angry hybrid, "How would you like to be rid of Klaus forever?"

Tyler stretched his arms and legs and put his hand over his mouth, "That's what I was trying to do when your idiot brother knocked me out and tossed me in the trunk."

Damon couldn't help but smirk, "Oh, well, we had to do that. Klaus would've killed Elena and Caroline and I'm sure you don't want that."

"What do you want?" Tyler asked.

"I want you to fight with us." Stefan said, "It's your only real hope of being free of Klaus."

Tyler looked down at his hands and then back up at the brothers, "Not to state the obvious, but I can't fight when I'm wrapped up in chains."

Damon looked at his brother, who shrugged back at him, "Well, I guess that's decided then." He quickly pulled the chains away from Tyler and then stepped back, "Let's just hope Klaus shows up with a small entourage this time."

Tyler happily slid out of the trunk, stretched his arms and legs and glared up at Vidar before switching his attention to Stefan, "Who the hell is that?"

"An ally." Stefan nodded. He checked his watch and looked over at Damon, "We need to get going."

**Outside Elena's Home**.

Katherine drove into the driveway, saw Caroline walking towards her and quickly wished she was back in LA. She got out of the car and met Caroline in the middle of the front yard, "What do you want?"

"I wanted to talk to you about Rebekah."

"I barely know her, so maybe you should talk to Stefan or Klaus about her." Katherine said while walking past Caroline and into the house.

Caroline followed, chasing Katherine down in the kitchen, "You might be interested to know that Rebekah has a bit of a crush on Elena. Well, more than a crush really. I think she might be in love with Elena."

Spitting out her drink, Katherine smiled at Caroline and calmly sat down in front of her, "Is that so? Why don't I believe you?"

"Probably because that would be easier to deal with. If you find out Elena didn't tell you about Rebekah, that might cause problems." Caroline said, doing her best to hold in her smile.

"Oh I get it now." Katherine said with a slight smile, "You just can't stand seeing me with Elena can you. I'd almost think you had a thing for her."

"No, I don't, but I do care about her and I'd prefer she stopped dating vampires altogether, because I don't see that ending well for anyone and when it's a choice between two psycho vampires, I just think she needs a third option."

"What would that option be?"

"I don't know, maybe Bonnie." Caroline said, happy to share her opinion, "They are incredibly close and I know Bonnie wouldn't do anything to hurt her."

Katherine shook her head at Caroline, "It's too bad that you don't get to pick out Elena's girlfriends, but you do have to live with her choices. Maybe you need to remember that there's more going on around here than your childish games. We are dealing with two vampires that are a very real threat to Elena's life and you're acting like a bratty kid who didn't get her way."

"If she'd stop dating vampires we wouldn't be in this mess to begin with." Caroline growled.

"Where does that leave you? If she gives up on vampires, you won't be part of her life either."

"No, I'm not a threat to her."

"Oh don't kid yourself. The minute you became a vampire you became a threat to everyone you know." Katherine said, instantly flashing back to her early days as a vampire, "All it takes is one moment to lose your temper and you kill someone. Just like that. You won't mean to, but it'll happen and you can't take it back. If you are so concerned about Elena's safety, you'd stay away from her to."

"Sounds like you had some experience with killing your friends, but I'm not like you. I would never do that." Caroline stated boldly.

"Let's hope not." Katherine said. She took a step towards the front stairs, but stopped and turned to Caroline, "Just one more thing. Why are you trying to turn me against Rebekah? I don't know her and I don't like what I do know, but it's like you want us to fight." A light went off in Katherine's head the second the words left her lips, "Oh, maybe that's it. You want us to kill each other. It's not bad plan, but it's not going to happen. Elena likes her for some reason and I'm not going to interfere with that."

"Really?" Caroline asked, flabbergasted at Katherine's nonchalant attitude, "I wasn't kidding when I said Rebekah was in love with Elena. If you think she's going to just happily move along you don't know her very well."

"I'll talk to Elena about this, but I'm not getting my information from you." Katherine turned and walked up the stairs and into Elena's bedroom.

**End of Chapter 7**.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**.

**Meredith Fell's Home**.

Meredith sat down across from Elena, stared intently at her and then finally spoke, "I know we don't know each other, but we do have a lot of people in common and I was hoping to talk to you about a few them if you don't mind."

"I'm not sure what you need from me."

"Well, has Alaric mentioned me to you at all?"

"Yes, he said you helped him out when he was in the hospital, but he also said he thought you were using him to get information, is that true."

Surprised by the blunt nature of the question, Meredith got up and walked in a circle around the small room, "I guess that makes you suspicious of me?"

"Shouldn't it?" Elena replied quickly.

"I can see why you'd feel that way, but I never led Alaric on or anything like that. I suppose I should've been more up front with what I wanted, which was just more information on Damon and Stefan."

"Why are you interested in them?"

Meredith stopped moving as she leaned on the counter and looked back at Elena, "As you must know I'm part of the Founder's Council and it's still their mission to rid the world of vampires. I have come to realize that they aren't all bad, but I have heard that Stefan had slipped back into his 'ripper' persona and that troubles me a lot. I do know that you used to date him, but I was hoping you could tell me if this is true or not?"

"What Stefan did was because he was under Klaus' control. Before that he had learned to live without killing. He was doing just fine, but Klaus needed him to prove his loyalty and I know he did horrible things during that time and I can't pretend it was okay, but Klaus is a danger to everyone and anything Stefan did was for the greater good."

"So he's not showing any signs of this behavior since he's been free of Klaus?"

Now it was Elena's turn to get up from her seat, "I don't like your questions. The answers are not so black and white. Stefan has helped me and my friends more times than I can count and he is not a threat to anyone. He just got used to having blood and it's just taking some time to get back to his old ways again."

Meredith walked over to Elena, "I do not mean to cause you any stress, but there are people who want Stefan and Damon killed. The Founder's Council doesn't share my views that not all vampires are the same. I just need to know all the facts before I submit my report to the Council. Keeping things from me is only going to make things worse. I can help, but only if you're honest with me."

"I can honestly say that I do not believe Stefan poses a threat to anyone in Mystic Falls."

"How about Rebekah?"

"What?" Elena asked, once again caught off guard by Meredith's question, "Why would you bring her up? I thought you were friends with her?"

Meredith smiled, "Well, we hadn't talked in years until today, but she is a very powerful vampire who has been prone to some violent outbursts, much like her brother. Do you feel safe around Rebekah?"

"Strangely yes." Elena said with a nod, "We became close when Stefan was with Klaus. She's not like Klaus. She's more like a typical teenager than anything. She's led a sheltered life and aside from listening to her brother too much in the past, I don't think she's evil."

"You do believe Klaus should be killed?"

"That sounds so bad the way you say it." Elena groaned, "Like he's some regular person I want murdered, but that's not true. He's done nothing but cause pain and heartache for me and everyone I know, all because I was part of some plan of his to create more hybrids. I think if he left Mystic Falls he'd just go find some other innocents to terrorize, so yes, in this instance I think the world would be better off if he were dead."

"I'm not disagreeing by any means, but I am curious as to how much you know about Katherine's history?"

"Oh no. I'm not discussing her." Elena said, shaking her head to further emphasize her point, "She's off limits."

"Really?" Meredith said with a curious smile, "She's older than the Salvatore's, which makes her incredibly powerful, she has a history that's filled with lies and manipulations, so do you think you can be objective when it comes to her?"

Elena felt her frustration level rise to the point of anger, "Look Miss Fell, I agreed to talk to you because I was being polite, but if you are just trying to attack the people I care about, I don't think I have anything else to say to you."

"Elena, that's not it at all." Meredith said, quickly flashing her million dollar smile, "I realize that some of these questions are quite personal and I understand your reactions perfectly, but I swear I'm not the enemy. I believe that even Katherine is capable of change, but as a vampire she's still dangerous, as are the Salvatore's and every other vampire in the world. What I'm trying to get at is that I want to help Katherine and the others you consider your friends."

"Maybe you should've started off with that statement." Elena said, letting out a small sigh of relief, "I may seem like some love struck teenager to you, but I'm not. I'm very aware of the dangers of dating a vampire. I've seen Stefan's temper and I've seen them kill and it's not something I ever want to see again, but like you said, they are not all the same. Katherine is no angel, but when she's with me, she is so different and I know for a fact she would never hurt anyone unless she had no choice."

"Okay, that's good to hear, which leads me to my next question. Do you think she'd be willing to undergo some testing?" Meredith said, continuing with her pitch before Elena could reply, "I'm not sure how much you know about my research, but my latest project is all about modifying the way a vampire thinks and acts. I actually did some tests on Rebekah earlier today and once I get the results I'll have more information to work with, but my goal is to help the vampires who want to change and if Katherine, Rebekah and the Salvatore's want to change, then I need them to come here and let me run some simple tests on them."

"I don't control any of them, but I can ask." Elena said as she looked around the futuristic lab.

"That's great." Meredith said with a big smile, "I'll look forward to working with them."

**Elena's Home**.

Alaric rushed in the front door, took a quick look around and then yelled out Elena's name. Moments later Caroline and Bonnie entered the living from different sides. He nodded at them and walked towards the middle of the room and held out a small bottle with strange bubbling liquid inside it, "Well, this might kill Vidar instantly. It's a mixture of rare herbs and chemicals, but he's been spelled so all we need now is to find him. Have you heard from Stefan or Damon?"

"No, but I know Stefan has Tyler and I'm not pleased about that." Bonnie said, "He's not going to turn him over to Klaus is he?"

"I really doubt that's what the plan is." Alaric replied.

Caroline shook her head, "I wouldn't have believed it a year ago, but Stefan has changed a lot in that time and I don't trust him like I used to. I don't think Tyler deserves to be a sacrificial lamb."

"Well, Klaus doesn't want Tyler dead, so I don't think you have anything to worry about." Alaric said, smiling widely as Elena walked into the room.

After she acknowledged her friends, she walked up to Alaric and nodded at his potion, "So, you found a way to kill him?"

"I hope so, but I need to get in touch with Damon. Either he's lost his phone or he's not answering, but neither is Stefan. I know they're in LA, but the sooner we take care of Vidar, the sooner we can deal with Klaus."

"You know it's not going to be that easy. We could use a potion to kill Klaus. I don't suppose your friend could whip something up?" Elena asked with a smile.

"You never know." Alaric replied with a smile of his own. He turned his attention towards Bonnie, "She did however ask to speak with you. She knew your grandmother and she said she has some information you might be interested in."

"Really? What about?" Bonnie asked excitedly.

"She said it was private, so I didn't push it. I can take you there if you're interested."

"Of course I am." Bonnie answered, "I'd just like to know what it's about."

Caroline stepped forward, "Um, could we get back to the problem at hand here? No offense Bonnie, but I think your family issues can wait until after Vidar is dead."

"I wasn't suggesting that they were." Bonnie snapped, rolling her eyes at Caroline's crass behavior.

Elena pulled Caroline off to the side, "We talked about you using a bit more tact, so what was that about? I think Bonnie has a right to be curious as to what a powerful witch might have to tell her. Do you really have to act like Damon?"

"It wasn't that bad, but I'll talk to her." Caroline said with an annoyed sigh, "Anyway, I should tell you that I talked to Katherine earlier and it didn't really go very well. I may have told her that Rebekah was in love with you."

"YOU DID WHAT?" Elena yelled, turning and kicking a small stool across the room. "How could you do that? I don't care what you think of Katherine, but that was just cruel and uncalled for. If you don't start treating her with a bit more respect, then we are going to have a huge problem. Where is she?"

"I don't know." Caroline said, moving out of Elena's way, "I think she's upstairs, but it's not like she can't move around freely, so who knows. I didn't do it to upset you. I just think Katherine needs to know what she's dealing with."

"That's not your decision to make." Elena growled. She turned and ran upstairs, pushing open her bedroom door to see Rebekah sitting on her bed. Once the initial shock had worn off, she closed her behind her and walked up to her, "You really need to use the door from now on."

"I didn't feel like dealing with your friends." Rebekah said. She got to her feet and took a step towards Elena, "I'm going to see my brother now and well, I never know what he'll do, but when I started to think about what I'd miss if he did something stupid, you were the first thing that popped into my head. I know I make you uncomfortable, but I'm not going to stay long. I just wanted to see you one more time and I'm so glad I did."

"Klaus won't hurt you. He knows why you hired Vidar. He's the one who should be apologizing." Elena said, slowly shifting away from Rebekah, "Anyway, if you want, Katherine and I could come with you. Between the two of you, I know you could handle Klaus."

"That's sweet of you to offer, but I do have to do this face to face." Rebekah said, unable to stop smiling around Elena, "It's funny, every time I'm this close to you I forget what I was going to say. I think it's because I was going to give you my blessing to be Katherine. Not that you need it, but I wanted you to know that my only wish is that you're happy and I won't cause you any more problems."

Elena smiled and instinctively reached in and gave Rebekah a very warm hug. She held her close for a bit longer than she needed to, before looking up at the stunning blonde and getting lost in her pretty green eyes, forgetting where she was for the shortest of moments, but in that moment as she looked at Rebekah's soft full lips, she leaned in and kissed her.

Rebekah happily and hungrily kissed Elena back, holding her tightly as she shared a kiss she never dreamed would ever happen. As they continued to kiss, Elena's bedroom door flew open and Katherine walked into the room.

Before Elena could even breathe, Katherine had lunged at Rebekah and knocked her to the ground. She began hitting her over and over until Elena began screaming for her to stop. Katherine stopped long enough to get back to her feet. She walked over to Elena, still in full vampire mode, took a brief look at her neck, before flying out the door and out of the house without saying a word.

Elena ran over and knelt beside Rebekah who was bleeding badly, but still smiling, "I'm so sorry. I should never have done that. Don't be mad at Katherine, this was all my fault. I keep doing the wrong thing. I know this is not the time to say this, but I have to. I still love Katherine. I like you, I do, but I think I just was so happy that you were being so nice about all this and maybe I always wanted to kiss you and I took advantage of this moment to do it, but that was so incredibly selfish of me and I feel horrible about this."

Rebekah got to her feet and wiped some blood from her lips, "I don't regret any of this. I understand how you feel, but you've given me something I've always dreamed about and I feel like a huge burden has been lifted from my shoulders. I will talk to Katherine if you want. I will tell her I kissed you. I don't want you to lose her because of me."

"You need to stop being nice to me." Elena yelled, "I don't deserve it. I have to be honest with Katherine. I know she's mad, but I will deal with her on my own. Are you okay? I know you're a vampire, but she hit you so many times and even though you keep smiling, I can see the bruises forming on your face already."

"Don't worry about me. Klaus has done worse on his good days." Rebekah smiled again and then walked towards the door, "I really wish things could've been different for us, but I hope you find happiness with Katherine and if you ever need anything just yell real loud and I'll be here."

Elena took a step towards Rebekah, but stopped herself, choosing to wave at her from the middle of room as she walked downstairs and left her home. Alaric, Bonnie and Caroline came rushing up as soon as they saw Rebekah leave and Elena ran right towards Bonnie, wrapped her arms around her and began to cry.

**Rudolph Fell Warehouse Complex**

**Los Angeles, California**.

Klaus walked down the assembly line of hybrids, looking over the medical report on each one before moving to the next. He stopped moving when he heard a noise, but relaxed when Sergei entered the room, rushing as quickly as his elderly legs would let him, "What's the rush?"

"I was doing as you asked and looking into Meredith Fell's history and I came up with something incredibly disturbing."

"That sounds intriguing. Do tell?"

"I'm not sure how it's possible or what it means, but not only is she still on the Founder's Council and has had numerous conversations with a known vampire hater, but she's been in contact with your mother for the last year."

Klaus stood in silence for the longest time, walking in a calm circle around the elderly doctor. After slowly trying to process what he'd just heard, his trademark smirk appeared on his face again, "Well, that is unexpected news. I hope you stopped just for effect, because I'm positive there's more to this story than just that."

"Yes sir." Sergei said with a mild smile, "I called in every favor I've accumulated over the years to get the most up to date information on Miss Fell and it seems she's found a way to kill your hybrids, with the help of your mother."

"No. That's not possible." Klaus replied. Stomping is feet across the room. "I've been working on this for hundreds of years. I've made the latest batch immune to most everything a human or vampire or werewolf could do them. How can you know if she's been successful? She has no hybrids to try it on?"

"Well, if you remember a year ago we had that explosion at the West Hillhurst warehouse and lost over 20 hybrids, it seems they were not destroyed, they were in fact stolen by Meredith's people."

Letting out an annoyed laugh, Klaus continued to smile as he shook his head back and forth. After fuming for a couple minutes, he turned to Sergei, "I knew something seemed wrong that night. Did you find out if our pretty doctor was in fact human or is she something else?"

"She's human, but she's got a lot of connections to supernatural beings. She is well known in the underground. Everyone I talked to knew about her. I admit this surprised me, but she's been building a very large following of her own. I don't believe her goal has anything to do with you specifically, but from what I've learned, I think she's going to test her research out on your hybrids. She knows about this warehouse. This is not connected to the Founder's Council. She is not alone and I think you need to take this very seriously."

"How can she do all this?" Klaus asked rhetorically, shaking his head in annoyed disbelief, "I'm guessing her interest in my sister was planned all along. She wanted information. I should've known. I didn't trust her, but I was just so intent on keeping Rebekah away from her that I didn't think to have her investigated. Well, now that you've given me all the bad news, do you have any good news for me?"

"Um, I did find out some of her associates names. I know she has a laboratory here in LA, but I'm sorry to say that I do not know where it is. I know that your mother is staying with Meredith Fell, but has kept a very low profile. She has not made contact with any of your family or any of the people in Mystic Falls. About the only weakness she might have is that she's still just a human and even with all her special training, it just takes one bullet to eliminate the problem."

"Oh Sergei, that's not how I do things." Klaus laughed, putting his arm around his trusty assistant, "If she must die, then I'll do it myself. For now, we need work on relocation and we need to do it as soon as possible. She might have people watching us, so I'm going to do my best to get their attention and I need you to take care of the rest. You have the list of all the other locations, so pick one closer to Mystic Falls. I think I'm going to be sticking around there a bit longer. Whatever you do, protect the last batch of hybrids with your life. They are the future and I will not tolerate anything but success. Are we clear?"

"Yes sir. I will get right on it."

**End of Chapter 8**.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**.

**Western Pharmaceutical Warehouse.  
Los Angeles, CA**.

Damon pulled up outside the large building, stepped out of the car, checked his watch and shrugged at his brother, "Well, this is where he told us to meet. Are you sure we can count on Tyler, because if he sides with Klaus, we're as good as dead."

"He was pretty confident that he'd broken the sire bond so I think he's very motivated to help us right now."

As Damon prepared to respond, his cell phone began to ring. He happily put it to his ear, "Why aren't you here?"

"I am, but I like to make sure there's no surprises waiting for me, helps to avoid your obvious traps." Klaus said with a big smile as he spied on the brothers from high above, "Do you really think I would trust you two? Now that you've betrayed me you will be the ones to tell Caroline and Tyler's family what that cost them."

"I don't really care if you kill him." Damon said, "He's been nothing but a pain in the ass to me, but we did bring him to you, socan we call it even?"

"If only that were the truth." Klaus seethed, looking over at the giant of a man bound and gagged beside Tyler, "I have another guest here with me, I suppose he was part of your good will package as well?"

Damon cringed, but kept his usual smart ass demeanor intact, "Again, if you want to kill him be my guest. Just stay out of Mystic Falls and you can do whatever the hell you want. Why risk it when you could leave without losing anything else?"

"What have I really lost?" Klaus asked with a giant grin, "I have my hybrids. I have Tyler. I now have Vidar. My father is dead. I have enough of Elena's blood to last almost a decade and eventually my sister will come around, so all you've done is delay the inevitable. I'll give you this, you have kept it interesting and for that I'm grateful. When things are too easy, you just don't appreciate them as much as when you have to fight for them. Don't you agree?"

"You're not invincible and one day you're going to find that out." Damon said, ending the call instantly. He let out a sigh as he looked at Stefan, "As you can tell, he's got Tyler and Vidar and he's not done in Mystic Falls."

Stefan let out a disappointed sigh, "We better get moving because I think he's going to kill Tyler to send a message to everyone that he means business."

**Mystic Falls Cemetery**.

Elena parked her car, got out and walked into the dark, almost misty graveyard, walking all the way to the north end, stopping to hop over the small fence, while continuing to walk through the thick forest until she made her way to a dust covered pile of concrete in the middle of nowhere. She took a quick look around before pushing the large and moderately heavy chunk of debris to the side. After catching her breath for a few moments, she grabbed the side of the rickety ladder and began to crawl downward.

"I'm not down there." Katherine said while looking down at Elena, "Although maybe that's where you should be, somewhere cold and dark and alone where you can't hurt anyone else."

"Is that what you want?" Elena asked softly, looking up at her very angry girlfriend.

"I don't know what I want anymore. I used to know, but just when I thought I might've found the one person I could really see spending my life with, she up and kisses another girl behind my back. Not just any girl either, but a very powerful vampire and a blonde no less. Not sure I can get over that."

Smiling at Katherine's almost joke, Elena pulled herself back up and stood in front of Katherine, "All I can say is I'm so sorry. I don't want to make excuses for what I did, but it really wasn't what it looked like. It wasn't some long makeout session. It was a kiss. A kiss that should never happened, but it did. It was all my fault and I don't want you blaming Rebekah for this."

"Oh I don't blame her." Katherine replied in a flash, "She was just there in that moment and I enjoyed taking out my anger out on her, but I wasn't mad at her. I know where the blame lies and I'm looking at her."

"Well, I guess it's good you don't have any misplaced anger, but I guess I need to know if you are mad or if you're ending us?"

"Oh don't pull that crap with me." Katherine said, "I didn't end anything, BUT, if we had ended, it would've been all your doing."

"Okay, I didn't mean it like that. I just want to know what I can do to make this better."

Ignoring Elena's comment, Katherine got right in Elena's face, "What is it about Rebekah that you find so alluring?"

"I don't know." Elena shrugged, "I don't want to upset you, but she's a lot like you. She's not all bad. She's got a good heart and I felt so guilty about stabbing her that I think I felt I owed her something."

"I see." Katherine said, laughing at the absurdity of Elena's words, "So you think maybe you evened it out now? Or did you want to have sex with her just to be sure?"

Elena frowned at Katherine, "No, the only person I ever want to have sex with is you. Hopefully, when you calm down a bit, you'll want that to."

"I'm not even mad. I'm disappointed. I'm disenchanted." Katherine said, her normally confident exterior replaced with one of sadness and confusion, "Of all the people I've met in my life and I've met a lot over the years, I felt you were the most honest, straight forward person there was. I knew I could trust you and when you're a vampire, trust is not easy to give and now I don't know if I can trust you anymore."

"Come on. That's not fair." Elena said in a pleading tone, "I know you have every right to be mad, but please don't let this one moment of weakness change everything. I'm still in love with you. I told Rebekah this. She knows. Everyone knows. You know I love you. What happened with Rebekah was wrong, and I know you're going to hate me for saying this, but I needed to do it."

After shaking her head and laughing at Elena's comment, Katherine could only roll her eyes in disbelief, "Yep, I do hate you for saying that. So now it's not a mistake, it's something you had to do?"

"I think so, yes." Elena said rather calmly, "If I hadn't stabbed Rebekah and if we hadn't got thrown together for two months, it's quite possible I would've kissed her long before that. I know it probably hurts to hear me say this, but I was attracted to her. I guess I wanted to know what it was like and some of it was just to say sorry to her for what I'd done, but some of it was for me to. BUT, when I kissed her I realized that whatever we might've had before was gone. It was gone because my heart belongs to you now."

"You should've quit while you were only a little behind." Katherine snapped, "Now I'm to believe that you were doing US a favor by kissing her? That's some high class rationalizing if I ever saw any."

"It's just the truth." Elena said, "I feel you deserve the truth. I don't want to hide any of this from you. I'd rather get it all out now than have you wonder about this kiss forever. I love you. Okay? Do believe me?"

"That's not really a fair question, because there's more to this than just love. Trust is separate. Trust is earned and maybe I was a bit hasty just giving you my trust so blindly. It appears I was wrong to do that and now I have to wonder if we'll ever get it back again."

"Whatever it takes I'm going to earn your trust back." Elena said boldly. She let out a sigh as Katherine turned her back on her, prompting a slightly different response, "You know, you might want to remember how many times you lied to me over the years and realize that you are not the easiest person in the world to trust either, but I do. I trust you completely."

Katherine spun around, "I haven't kissed Bonnie or Caroline since we've been together, but I wonder what you'd think if I did."

"Are you kidding me?" Elena said, all but laughing at the thought, "You hate them? I'd think you were possessed by a demon or something if you kissed them."

"Oh, so you wouldn't be mad at all?"

"Honestly, I really do think the idea is kind of funny. Do you want to kiss them? Would that make things even in your mind?"

"No I don't, but I don't think you'd like it at all." Katherine snapped, "And I don't think it's that funny either. You are not helping yourself right now."

"Okay. I'm sorry." Elena said, wiping the grin off her pretty face, "I wouldn't like seeing you kiss anyone else, because I want those soft sweet lips all to myself."

"Well too bad, because I don't think you're going to be anywhere near these lips for a while. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some work to do."

"Work? Come on. I said I'm sorry." Elena said, inching her way towards Katherine, "Please, just let me make it up to you."

Katherine pulled away in a flash, appearing on the other side of the crypt moments later, "No! I want to believe you have no feelings for Rebekah, but I'm not sure it's true."

"Don't do this Katherine." Elena said, sounding more like a demand than a wish, "4You're just making a scene because you want an excuse to leave. You don't like being in love do you? It makes you too vulnerable and that makes you weak in your mind, doesn't it?

"Not only are you a cheater, you're a shrink to?" Katherine laughed, "Let's think about this for a second. I wonder how many girls would like it if their girlfriend kissed another girl and then had the audacity to say she did it for them? If we broke up right now, nobody would blame me. I'm not in the wrong this time. This is all on you."

"You really want to break up over this?" Elena asked, truly puzzled by Katherine's reaction. After letting out a soft sigh, she put on her smile and walked back and stood in front of Katherine, "I still love you. That never changed. What I did was wrong and stupid and selfish , but I can't take it back, but I don't want to be with Rebekah, I want to be with you. What more do you want from me?"

"I wish I knew." Katherine said in an almost whisper, "I just need some time alone. Can you give me that?"

"I don't want to go." Elena pleaded, "I feel you pulling away and if I can't get through to you I know you'll be gone when I come back."

"Now who's being dramatic?"

"I didn't mean to make light of this, but I guess it's because it was closing that chapter of my life. It only made me realize how much I love you. Could you promise not to leave tonight? Don't end it like that. At least give this a few days and we'll talk whenever you're ready."

"I'm not leaving." Katherine replied instantly, "As mad as I am, I still love you and I know it would easier to just disappear, but that's not what I want. I just need some time alone. That's all."

"Okay. That's fair enough." Elena said, letting out a happy sigh of relief, "I guess I should go then. Um, can I at least give you a hug before I go?"

"Make it a quick one." Katherine said with a slight sigh.

Elena smiled and lunged towards her, wrapping her arms around her and holding her tight. She slowly moved her head from Katherine's shoulder so she was looking her right in the eyes, she smiled widely, leaned in and was just about to give Katherine a kiss, when once again, Katherine disappeared, reappearing well behind her, "Oh no. I said a hug. I'm not kissing those lips until you go home and wash them out with soap. I don't need to second hand kiss Rebekah, she's your fantasy girl, not mine."

"Oh god. That's so childi…I mean, that's such a good idea." Elena said, happy she stopped herself when she did, "I'll go do that now."

Katherine couldn't help but smile as Elena turned and walked away from her, taking a nice long look at her ass before she disappeared out of sight, which only made her smile brighter as she turned and walked back into the crypt.

Elena smiled all the way back to her car, but the minute she opened the door that all changed. Two men grabbed her from behind, holding her in place as two people stepped out of the shadows and stood in front of her.

"Well, I'm glad I caught you before you went home." Klaus said as he walked in a slow circle around Elena, "There's no need to be alarmed. I'm not going to hurt you. In fact, I'm here to make peace."

"I find that hard to believe." Elena said as the two men let go of her arms.

"As fascinating as your wonderful little town has been, I have pressing matters to attend to back home. Before I go, I do need one last thing from you."

"What would that be?"

"I need you to come with me back to England." Klaus said, pausing long enough to enjoy Elena's reaction before continuing, "I would even allow Katherine to join you there and you would have complete freedom and you would be under my protection because I can't afford to have anything happen to you.

"Are you insane?" Elena asked, "I'm not going anywhere with you and neither is Katherine."

"Hmm, I kind of thought you'd say that, but I need your blood and if there was any other way to do this I'd do it, but I don't really trust the mail system with such an important item."

"How can you need more blood? I thought you had lots of those hybrid things? I'm not going to be giving you my blood forever. Why can't you just go live a normal vampire/hybrid life somewhere?"

"That would be pretty boring don't you think?" Klaus said with a smirk, "Anyway, I've found out something recently that has changed my plans. Unfortunately, I can't really do what I need to do without access to your delicious and truly magical blood. If only you knew how unique it was, you might understand all this. Maybe in time I will share that with you, but for now I need you to get home, get packed and be ready to travel by tomorrow night. Any questions?"

"I can't do that." Elena protested, "I have to watch out for Jeremy. Katherine and I just had a fight, I don't even know if she wants to be with me anymore."

"That is quite sad, but it's not my concern." Klaus said, "Jeremy is almost an adult. Stop treating him like a baby. He's got Alaric, who, let's be honest, is a much better parent than you'll ever be, as well Bonnie, Caroline, the two annoying Salvatore's, so he'll do just fine. In fact, he might even succeed without you holding him back."

Elena rushed up and stopped right in front of Klaus, "You know, one of these days you are going to get what's coming to you."

Klaus nodded and smiled, "I would think so, but it's not going to be today. Now, if you're done with your excuses, I have another appointment and I hate being late."

"This isn't fair. It's not right. There has to be another way."

"I can promise you I have thought of every conceivable option and this is the best one. How about if I told you that you are a greater danger to your brother and your friends if you stay here?"

"What does that even mean?"

"It means that being a doppelganger is not your only claim to fame in the supernatural world. You my pretty young friend, are perhaps the most important human walking this earth as we speak."

Elena shook her head, rolled her eyes and let out a slight groan, "That's just a riddle. Just tell me what the hell you're talking about."

"In due time." Klaus said, walking slowly towards her limo, "You can stay here. I will not force you to come with me, but I will keep you alive while your friends and family are killed one by one. Then, once they are all dead, I will ask you if it was worth it to ignore my warning."

"You need to give me more information. How can I tell them I'm going anywhere with you without them locking me up for being insane?"

"They don't need to know the specifics and neither do you. Not now anyway. I can tell you that there are beings on their way here and when they get here nobody is going to stop them. Not Katherine, not Rebekah, not the Salvatore's and not even that big dumb giant Vidar. I am not saying this to scare you, I'm saying it to save your life and in turn the lives of your friends and family. That may seem hard to believe, but I'm not doing it to be nice, I'm doing it for purely selfish reasons, because I know how important you are. Okay?"

"Whatever, but you better keep everyone I love safe. That includes Katherine."

"Does it include my sister?" Klaus asked with a wicked grin.

"Well, I don't want anything bad to happen to her either, so yes."

"I heard about the kiss." Klaus smiled, "Yes, I do have my spies, but I have to say, I like you even more after what you did. That shows you aren't just this boring good girl after all. There's some fire underneath that horribly boring exterior and I do love that. As you know, I would never let any harm come to my sister, so you can rest easier now."

"You've done more harm to her than anyone."

"It's so romantic of you to defend her like that. I can see why Katherine would have some issues with your lingering feelings for my sister, but alas, I don't have time to deal with your traumatic love life, I really do have to go." Klaus said, waving to Elena as he turned to walk away, "I will have a limo waiting for you tomorrow night at 10:30 PM. I hope you get your affairs in order with Katherine by then, because we are leaving, with or without her."

"You are such a jerk."

"I've been called much worse, but I appreciate your honesty. I will see you tomorrow night." Klaus said, nodding as he slipped back to his fancy limo.

Elena stomped her foot on the ground, let out a scream just for the hell of it, but then calmly got back into her car and headed home.

**End of Chapter 9**.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**.

**Meredith Fell's Home**.

Meredith grabbed two cups of coffee and walked slowly towards her kitchen table, sat one down in front of Esther and took the other with her and sat down across from her guest, "Are you ready for the next phase?"

"I'm ready, but I'm not sure it's going to work." Esther said as she sipped her coffee, "Klaus is not a trusting soul. Not even when he was young. I can do my best, but I fear he'll see right through me, because he just seems to know when people are lying to him."

"We don't have any other choice. We both know he isn't likely to agree to my tests. If he won't change then we have to stop him. If you're getting cold feet I can find another way to do this."

"No. I'm okay, but I hope you haven't underestimated my son. He is a very clever young man."

Meredith smiled, "I've done my research and I know how to deal with him. I wanted to give you one more chance to reason with him. I don't want to kill anyone who wants to change. You have my word I will treat him the same as the others if he agrees to work with me."

"I'm surprised he agreed to meet you here. He knows how secure this place is."

"I have to admit our last conversation was a bit different than the rest. He wasn't his usual threatening self. He said he wanted to work with me, but I can't believe him. He's wanted me dead since I started seeing Rebekah."

"He's always had a temper." Esther said, "He got that from his father, but maybe he has changed. Or, he's found a new angle to play."

"Yep, that's what I think, but I don't know what it is."

A tall slender blonde walked into the room, "Miss Fell, there's a man at the door who says he has an appointment with you. He said is name was Klaus?"

"Yes, send him in." Meredith smiled. She got to her feet, walked over to the doorway and motioned for Klaus to come inside. Once inside, she walked over and stood beside his mother, "Let's get right to the point, why the rush to speak to me when you've been making threats to kill me for weeks now?"

"I'm a very forgiving man and the one thing I've learned over the years is that you need to focus on the biggest problem first and right now that's not you." Klaus said, walking slowly around the two women, "I'm not sure if you've been listening to the grapevine lately, but Mystic Falls is about to get some very unpleasant visitors and if we don't work together everyone in this stupid little town is going to end up dead. Now, I propose an alliance and if all goes well, we can save your hometown from a fate much, much worse than death."

"If you mean the chatter about the Feralfen Demons returning, I have heard about it and I couldn't find any proof that they still exist. How could you find out something like this? Who's your source?"

"Does it really matter how I found out?" Klaus asked, seemingly always annoyed at whatever Meredith said.

"It does because I have sources everywhere and I came up with nothing concrete at all. Meredith said, lowering her head as she walked back over to the far wall, "If this is true, it changes everything. Elena will be their target and they will destroy this town, the whole state, who knows what else, just to get at her."

"Let's just say that my source is very close to the demons, but is even more loyal to me. Either way, if you need visual proof, I can show you. I know where they're hiding. That's why I'm here. Even with my hybrids, I'm not sure I could kill them all, but I know you have many resources at your disposal that could increase our odds of succeeding."

"Where are they?" Meredith asked.

"They are nearby." Klaus nodded, "Just know that I can and will protect Elena, but the rest of you are on your own, unless you work with me."

Esther took a step forward, smiling at her expressionless son, "The Feralfen Demons have been locked in an alternate dimension for thousands of years. We knew of their danger from when Elijah was hunting down Katherine Pierce, but were told that they could never escape, why do you believe this has changed?"

"She speaks." Klaus said with a strange smirk, "Well mommy dearest, I believe it because I've seen them alive and well within the last 48 hours. I don't know how they escaped, but they have and we both know that Elena will never be safe until they are destroyed for good."

Meredith stepped in between the two, "So what's the downside of your proposal? What aren't you telling us? You aren't offering to help out of the goodness of your heart."

"Well, I still need Elena and she has agreed to come back to England with me and I need you to make sure that nobody follows us there. I will keep my end of the bargain and help you kill the demons, but Elena is mine."

"I am not making a deal with another person's life." Meredith yelled, wishing she was surprised by her Klaus' latest demand, "We'll find a way to stop the demons, but you are not taking Elena anywhere. If that's all you came here for, you can leave."

"You can't be serious?" Klaus said with an annoyed chuckle, "She's going to be killed and you know it. How is that better than living the good life overseas with Katherine no less?"

"It's what makes us human I guess." Meredith proudly proclaimed, "Your definition of free will is quite warped. If you are constantly taking blood from Elena and keeping her from her family and friends, that's not paradise, it's hell."

"You can't kill the demons without my hybrids." Klaus growled, growing increasingly more agitated by the second, "It's the one thing they do better than anything, they are a demons worst nightmare. Without me, you are dooming this sad little town and maybe even the whole world to death and despair. Are you really willing to make that choice for everyone?"

"What if you didn't have your hybrids? How would you protect Elena then?"

"Oh, I don't have just one contingency plan, I have numerous plans in place in case things don't work out. So even if you did something stupid and slowed me down, it wouldn't stop me. You might want to remember that before you do something you will regret.

"I don't want anyone else getting hurt. So how can we stop these demons?"

"First things first." Klaus said with a confident smirk, "Elena has already agreed to come with me and my guess is that Katherine will agree as well, so I need to know that nobody is going to interfere with this or, well, you know what will happen."

"I can't speak for anyone else, but I don't think anyone will risk Elena's life so can we move on?" Meredith said, "Now, do you know how many demons are still alive?"

"I don't have an exact number, but I'd guess less than 50. Most were wiped out when they were attacked by a nasty group of sorcerer's/witches, but when they began losing their advantage in the 30 day war, they called upon the dark magic's to imprison the remaining demons. It is unclear as to whether the sorcerers/witches knew about Elena's importance, given the fact she was not born at the time, but we know the demons are aware of her, because it's built into their history."

"Alright, I don't like that you are manipulating Elena into leaving with you, but I believe you will keep her safe, so for now I'm going to agree to help you and I truly hope you change your mind when this is all over, because it doesn't have to end badly for anyone."

"That's nice of you to say and I even understand why you think this is horrible and wrong, but there's more than one way to look at the world and your way is not the only way."

"I'm pretty sure that you're the only who agrees with your way, but I'm not going to argue about it. We need to get your hybrids ready" Meredith said, walking briskly out of the room. She returned shortly with a small medical bag in her hand, "Let's go, we're running out of time."

**Elena's Home**.

Alaric walked in a slow circle around the sofa, nodding occasionally as he attempted to read the paper at the same time. As he turned the corner, his eyes lit up, he dropped the paper in a flash and he put the phone back to his ear, "Would you say that again please?"

"I thought that would get your attention." Miranda said, smiling only for a brief moment, "I only began taking this seriously when Elena's name began surfacing in the same chatter with the Feralfen demons. I know you care about her, but she's in greater danger from these demons than she ever was from Klaus."

"How is this possible?" Alaric questioned, "They are a thousand years old, if not older. Elena's barely 18, how is she so important to them?"

"I don't have all the information yet, but I was able to uncover some of their history and with it came a picture of what they call the Precursor known as Valda." Miranda held out a photo for, "Now, this picture bares a striking resemblance to Elena."

"Why do they want her?"

"In the interest of speeding things up, I will spare you their century's long history, but this Valda person is said to possess special powers." Miranda said, slipping her hands across the numerous objects in front of her, "Powers that will allow the Feralfen to revive their whole race. If this happens, they will annihilate the world we live in and once they have removed every human or other supernatural being that might exist, they will sacrifice Elena as a way to secure their everlasting peace."

"I hate that I've never heard of this. I should've learned about it when I was investigating Elena's family. I won't let anything happen to her, but I need to know how to stop them."

"That's just it, they are a hybrid themselves. They are not your ordinary demons. They possess the strength of a thousand men, their skin is said be able to resist the any normal form of damage, from swords, to arrows, and even bullets, while legend also suggests they have an extremely high IQ, making them perhaps the most formidable enemy this world has ever seen."

"I'm sure it was unintentional on your part, but I think you skipped the part where you told me how to stop them?"

"Alaric, that's what I've been trying to tell you, I see no weaknesses in them at all. I need more time to look into their history, but if this rumor is true and they have already been released, it's only a matter of time before they come looking for Elena. I can put a spell around Mystic Falls, that can keep you hidden for maybe 48 hours, but other than taking Elena and travelling to another dimension, I don't know what to tell you."

"Please, just keep looking and call me if you find out anything." Alaric said. Just as he put his phone in his back pocket, Elena walked into the door. He rushed over and wrapped his arms around, "I'm so glad to see you."

Elena waited for Alaric to loosen his grip, before looking at him with a curious smile, "What was that for?"

"Nothing." Alaric said, doing his best to smile, "I hate to be the bearer of even more bad news, but I think you're in more danger than we realized."

"Oh you heard about Klaus already?" Elena asked with a slight laugh, "Well, then you must know that I have to go with him."

"What? What do you mean go with him?" Alaric said, "I don't know anything about that."

"Then what are you talking about?"

"What did Klaus tell you?"

"That there was a bigger threat and they are coming for me and that he could keep me safe and if I wasn't here, then Mystic Falls would be safe. Is he lying?"

Alaric sighed, "If ever I wished he was lying, it would be about this, but he's not. I want to know how he thinks he can protect you, because from what I've heard, these demons are a very serious threat to everyone."

"You sound pretty worried. That's not like you." Elena said, "You are always the calm one, so why aren't you reassuring me right now? Because I'm starting to think I'm going to need it."

"I will do whatever it takes to protect you and Jeremy, but I'm not sure I can do it here." Alaric said, sounding strangely uncertain.

Caroline rushed into the room with Bonnie by her side and Rebekah following oddly close behind, moving right up to Elena, "We need to get you out of here, now."

Elena couldn't help but let out a small smile, "I see everyone seems to know about this new threat, but I'm going to be fine. I may not like Klaus, but I actually believe he can protect me and Katherine."

"I don't like him either, but from what Rebekah told me, he knows about these demons and he just might be the only way to save Elena."

Katherine walked into the room, took one look at Rebekah and her vampire instincts took over, but as she took a step towards her, Elena rushed in front of her. Katherine relaxed as she felt Elena's hand on her arm and she took a deep breath and pulled Elena out of the room and into the front yard, "You know, I was doing my best to try and move past your kiss, but I did not expect to see her here when I show up. Is she a new house guest or something? Does she live here now? Is there anything else you want to tell me?"

"Yes, some Feralfen demons want to take me away and probably kill me and Rebekah and the others are just trying to find a way to prevent that."

"That's not possible." Katherine said, caught completely off guard by Elena's news, "They were banished. I'd know if they returned. I know how dangerous they are. What I don't know is why you're part of this."

"I don't know much, just what Klaus told me. We have to leave with him. It's the only way to keep everyone here safe."

"What?" Katherine yelled, "We're not going anywhere with that psycho. He doesn't control me and if he wants a fight, then he's got one."

"Slow down." Elena said, smiling at Katherine's protective posturing, "I have to think of my family and friends. I hope you understand that I'm only doing what I think is best. I can't make you come with me, but I sure want you to. It won't be forever. I know that we'll find a way to get back here, but until we do, will you please come with me?"

"I want to have a chat with Klaus before I agree to anything. He must know something if he thinks he can keep you alive, because these demons were seconds from taking over the whole world, and if that's true, we can use that information to stop them ourselves."

"Well, I don't want to make this situation worse, but Rebekah knows Klaus better than anyone and she just came in minutes before you did and I think we need to listen to what she has to say. If this bothers you, then I'll let them take care of it. I don't have to be there."

"No. I can do this." Katherine said, taking a deep breath and exhaling, "If she can help us then I'll put my feelings aside and work with her, anything that helps. You come first."

"You see, that's why I love you." Elena said with a big smile, putting her arms around Katherine and giving her a much needed kiss. She held the kiss for as long as she could, before a few forced coughs caused her to pull away and look towards the front door, "You couldn't have waited just a few minutes longer?"

Caroline smiled, but shook her head no, "I think you might want to come in here, because Rebekah knows how to stop the demons."

Elena grabbed Katherine's hand and led her back into the house. She walked with her into the living room and they stopped in front of the tall gorgeous blonde.

Rebekah nodded at Elena, but quickly began to speak, "Klaus has always been very paranoid, but it's served him well. He's found a way to stay ahead of the game. I remember back about 50 years ago, we heard rumblings that the Feralfen demons had somehow escaped and Klaus was insanely upset by this. I had no idea why at the time, but I'd never seen Klaus so worried about anything before, so I made it my goal in life to find out why."

Katherine barely let Rebekah finish before she was replying, "Considering the time issue, perhaps you cut to the chase and just tell us how to kill them?"

The rest of the room remained silent as Rebekah smiled at Katherine's vocal request, "Of course. Well, the demons seem have one major weakness, but that's where Klaus comes into play. He found out that the poison the hybrids inflict with their bite can kill a demon within minutes and since his goal was to protect Elena, he began the process of putting together an elite army of hybrids, just in case they ever got loose."

"That's just great. Once again he's holding all the cards." Katherine said, "Well, I'm not letting him take Elena anywhere, so how can we get control of his hybrids?"

"Klaus is the only with control over them. The bond he creates with the hybrids is his and his alone. Even if it's not the most pleasant solution, we need Klaus on our side to defeat them."

"If the demons die, then Klaus has no control over the situation. So why would he help us?"

"You'd have to ask him." Rebekah replied.

"Oh I plan to, so let's get going." Katherine said, "The sooner we stop these demons the sooner we can move on with our lives."

**End of Chapter 10**.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**.

**Outside Meredith's Fell's Estate**.

With his hybrids all up and working again, Klaus turned back to Meredith, "I don't suppose you have any fancy gadgets or potions that could help with the fight?"

"I don't know enough about these demons to prepare something in such a short time. Do you have any information on them you'd like to share? We are on the same side right now and if I can help, I will."

"I know enough to kill them, but other than a hybrid bite, I don't know if they can be killed. Back when they were a threat, we didn't have the science and technology that we have now, so there's not much I can tell you. I don't even know how they were stopped, because they were close to exterminating the whole world."

Stefan and Damon rushed towards Klaus, but as usual, were just a little too slow to get their hands on him. After watching him slide in beside Meredith and his mother, the two brothers continuing walking towards him.

Meredith stepped in front of him and put her hand out, "Stop. He's on our side for now. We have a bigger problem than him right now."

"Is that so?" Damon enquired, not taking his eyes off of Klaus.

"Yes, do either of you know about the Feralfen demons?"

"Only by legend, but they were already trapped when we heard about them." Stefan said, "Why? Are they back?"

"According to Klaus they are and Elena is their target."

"What?" Damon asked, "What does she have to do with them?"

Klaus confidently stepped forward, standing in front of his two main enemies, "Your lovely Elena is not only popular with the people of Mystic Falls, but it appears she has many connections to the supernatural world. These demons believe she can grant them true immortality, but in order to get their wish, she must be sacrificed."

Stefan shook his head at Klaus, "Judging by your usual smug look, you think you can stop them?"

Klaus shrugged and smiled, "I know I'm the best chance your annoying little town has. So the question is, are you with me or against me?"

"We're against you, but we'll let that slide until Elena is safe." Damon added.

"Actually, you will agree to my terms or you can all die for all I care." Klaus growled, "In the end, I will protect Elena, so basically this is just my gesture to save all of you, because it's my best interest to have Elena come voluntarily."

"What are you talking about? Where do you think Elena is going?" Stefan asked, stepping towards Klaus yet again.

"Oh, you aren't up on the latest yet?" Klaus said with a smug smile, "Well, I need Elena to come with me to England. I have a much more secure lab there and I've already told her she can bring her true love Katherine with her, so she won't be alone. She's already agreed, so I just need the rest of you to agree, so we don't have any problems after I help you."

"Sure, we'll help." Damon said, not hiding is insincerity one bit.

"You see, that's what I was worried about." Klaus said as he walked up to Damon, "I can tell by the way you said it that you think you can wait until I save the day and then take me out when it's over, but as you must know by now, I have contingency plans in place to assure you won't do anything stupid."

"Like what?"

"That's not important, but I do know that it will be enough to keep Elena in line, so if we could turn our attention to the demons that would be good."

Damon looked at Stefan and then Meredith, "Where's Jeremy?"

"He's safe. I have no reason to kill him, unless you give me one." Klaus said with a confident smile as they all looked back at him, "Now, back to the real problem. The demons travel in stealth, but they also move about as fast as one of your planes, so chances are they will be here before nightfall, if not sooner, so let's go over what needs to be done."

"Klaus' hybrids have the ability to kill these demons." Meredith said, "The poison from their bite is said to be almost instantaneous, but we don't know how many demons will be coming. The estimate was 50, which makes it a pretty even battle against Klaus' hybrids, but even then they are at a disadvantage."

"That is true." Klaus nodded, "The demons gained a lot of different abilities when they were combined with these prehistoric insects. They have superior strength, their skin is all but impenetrable and they don't need their stinger to kill you, but if they do use it, that's about the only time they will be vulnerable. Even then you only have about 10 seconds to take advantage.

"I've been in contact with Alaric and his friend Miranda, who's also a powerful witch and she will work with Bonnie to try and create protective shield around us, while I will see if some of my experiments will have any effect on these demons."

Damon waited for his name to be called but it wasn't, "If the hybrids are all that can kill these demons, what do you want us to do, stand and cheerlead?"

"I for one would appreciate a little support from the sidelines." Klaus said with an amused smirk.

Esther stepped forward, "We only know what legend says about these demons, but like anything passed down through generations, the truth sometimes gets a bit exaggerated, so let's hope that's the case here. Either way, you'll be needed to pitch in and do what you can. Even if you can't kill them, you should be able to do moderate damage. Slow them, harass them, do whatever you can to give the hybrids a chance to kill them."

"We'll do whatever's needed." Damon said, "Where is Elena?"

"They are on their way." Meredith said. She turned towards Stefan, "We should get to your estate. I will get my things and meet you there."

**Elena's Home**.

Elena and her friends met one last time, shared a group hug and then headed out. Caroline and Rebekah took one car, while Alaric, Elena and Katherine took another, while Bonnie and Miranda took a quick detour to Miranda's home to stock up on whatever ingredients they could think of.

With Caroline driving, Rebekah sat beside her, quiet as a mouse as they drove to what could be their final fight, but as the silence continued, Caroline began to get agitated until she finally turned to her unwanted passenger, "So what are you doing? Please tell me you're not thinking of Elena."

"Okay, I won't tell you that." Rebekah said, barely holding in her smile.

"You're not going to become her stalker are you?"

"No. I'm ready to move on." Rebekah said, "Right now she's in danger and I will do whatever I can to protect her."

"What's the story between you and Meredith?"

"It's not much a story really." Rebekah shrugged, " Klaus heard about her experiments and he came here to learn more about them. Meredith seemed to take a liking to me right off the bat and I was certainly flattered and once Klaus had determined that Meredith wasn't a threat, Meredith looked me and up asked me out."

"She seems almost too good to be true." Caroline said with a big smile, "She's smart, beautiful, can take care of herself and even has a soft spot for vampires. Is there any chance of you forgiving her?"

"I don't know. You know important trust is for us and she went behind my back. She just couldn't believe that Klaus would be so unreasonable. Besides that, Klaus said he'd kill her if I didn't stop seeing her."

"She doesn't seem afraid of Klaus, maybe she does know a way to kill vampires, even powerful original hybrids like your brother."

"It's probably hard for you to understand, but I'm glad Vidar didn't kill my brother." Rebekah said with a soft smile, "It sounds insane I know, but through the years he has done some good things for me. Oh they are dwarfed by the way he treats me, but he needs me more than he'll ever admit."

"I don't like you, but the way he treats you is horrible." Caroline said, "It makes me want to rip his head off. Yes, I know he can be charming, but only when he wants something, but the real Klaus comes shining through when he doesn't get his way. The fact I can feel bad for you is saying a whole lot, but you need to cut your ties with him, because that bond you share is unhealthy and that's putting it mildly."

"But he's family. You can't just turn off those feelings." Rebekah said, unable to forget those few good times when Klaus really was a good brother to her, "He's not that bad when it's just the two of us. He's normal then. It's just when he's trying to prove he's the most powerful being on this earth that he becomes an asshole."

"Isn't that pretty much all the time now?" Caroline asked with a big smile.

Rebekah smiled at Caroline, "I guess, but you're an only child right, so you can't know what it's like. Look at Damon and Stefan. They look like they'll kill each other every day, but when one of is in trouble, the other is there to help no questions asked. Don't tell me they always treat each there nicely. I'm not condoning what Klaus has done, but I don't think I can ever give up on him."

"I don't know if that's inspiring or just sad, but I guess it's your life and you can do what you want. I just think you should stand up to him more if you're going to keep running back to him. Show him you're not a pushover. I think he might just respect you for it."

"Or kill me." Rebekah laughed, "I know one thing, he cares about you and that's real. I know you don't feel the same about him, but it shows he has feelings, he just doesn't show them very often."

Caroline smiled back at Rebekah, "Speaking of feelings, I brought up Meredith because we had dinner together the other day and we kind of hit it off and I was just wondering if you'd mind if I started seeing her?"

"Really?" Rebekah asked with a curious smile, "I'm surprised you'd ask what I think at all, but I have no right to stand in your way. I would not have a problem with it."

"I was kind of hoping you would, because then I could believe you were over Elena."

"Don't worry, I made peace with Elena after our kiss." Rebekah said, instinctively running her fingers over her lips, "It felt like it was the closure I needed."

"Well, Bonnie's still single and I hear Tyler's got some new werewolf babe staying at his place, so maybe you should look her up."

"I never expected you to be giving me dating tips, but I like it. I'll certainly think about it." Rebekah said, finally able to relax with someone again.

Elena cuddled in close to Katherine, smiling at her as a million thoughts raced through her head, "I don't know if you should come with me. They won't kill me, they want me alive, but I don't want to see anything happen to you."

"They might not kill you instantly, but you are as good as dead if they win this battle. They are not going to take you from me. So don't even think like that."

"Are you okay with the alternative? Going to England to be Klaus' guest?"

"We won't be there for long. I'm not going to sit by and watch him drain your blood every day like it's acceptable, because it's not. I'll go with you because we need time to figure out how to escape this absurd situation, but we are going to live our dream, right here in this tiny little town and nobody is going to stand in the way."

"I want that so much." Elena said, staring intently into Katherine's dark delicious eyes, "As long as Jeremy is safe along with my friends, the only thing I want is to spend every single day with you."

"Every single day huh?" Katherine said with a look of mock horror covering her pretty face, "Well, I know we'll be travelling a lot, because I want to show the world, every amazing corner of it. Once Jeremy is in college and on his own, I know we'll have a lot more fun in our house to."

"I can't wait for that." Elena said as she gave Katherine a nice long soft kiss. She continued kissing her passionately until she remembered where she was. She pulled away from the kiss, but continued to lean in against her chest, "I love my brother, but I love you so much more and I think we've earned the right to have some privacy so we can do all those amazing things we've talked about." Elena slid her hand up Katherine's leg, moving slowly up her thighs, "Like the prisoner/warden fantasy. That will be so fun to try.'

"Um, I can hear you and I kind of wish I couldn't right now." Alaric said, doing his best not to look into his rear view mirror for fear of what he might see.

"Sorry." Elena said, while laughing in Katherine's arms, "We'll keep the conversation PG from now on."

** End of Chapter 11**.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**.

**Salvatore's Estate**.

Bonnie drove up to the familiar land, parked her car behind a convoy of other vehicles and walked up to the massive group of people milling about outside the large mansion. She smiled when she saw Elena and moved quickly towards her, "WOW, I can't believe they aren't trying to kill each other."

Elena greeted Bonnie with a warm hug, "I guess they know how serious this is. Were you able to get anything that might help?"

"Nothing long term, but Miranda thinks we can do enough to protect everyone long enough for the hybrids to do their job."

"Good, because I want this over and I don't want anyone getting hurt."

Klaus waltzed up to the two women and put his arm around Elena, "Well, I hope your wish comes true. I sure don't want to see anything happen to you or your brother. That would just break my heart."

"This is why people want you dead. You didn't have to do that. I said I would go with you."

"Would you really have agreed if Jeremy were not my house guest?" Klaus asked as he walked in a slow circle around Elena, "I didn't think so." He smiled as he walked into the center of the large group, "Okay, I've just been informed that the demons are near. Does everyone know their jobs? If we don't work together you won't have any lives to go back to."

Katherine stepped forward, "Caroline, Rebekah and I will be protecting Elena in the main house. Everyone else will be helping kill the demons. Bonnie and Miranda will do their best to protect the fighters.

"I have been working on a particular weapon that can kill a vampire from a great distance and I'm hoping that it works on these demons, but the thing is, there only weakness seems to be their stinger. From what we've learned it isn't covered in the same impenetrable material as their skin, which means if I can get a clear shot at the stinger, I believe this dart will kill them."

Klaus smiled at Meredith, "It's nice to know that you've been putting yourself to good use." He quickly turned his attention to his sister, "Now perhaps you finally see why I didn't trust her. She has always wanted us dead and now she's found a way to do it."

"That's not true." Meredith swiftly denied, "I don't want all of you dead, because you're not all the same. Just like there's good people and bad people, it's no different with vampires or hybrids. Oh and it does work on hybrids to, quite well I might add."

"If you think you're going to pick off my hybrids when this is over, you might want to ask Elena if she is willing to agree to that."

"Klaus, stop making this worse." Rebekah said, stepping up to confront her big brother, "All we want to do is stop these demons, so just make sure your hybrids do their job and everyone else will do theirs."

"I hope so, but there will be consequences if this changes and it won't just be Jeremy who pays the price. I suggest you all remember that, because I've had about enough betrayals to last a lifetime and one more and I'll wipe this annoying town off the map." Klaus smiled while walking around the large circle, making sure everyone understood he meant business, "Okay then, let's get into position. Elena, when they unstealth they will take a few minutes to get their bearings and you need to get back inside as fast as possible. Lock every window and every door and do not come out for anything."

Katherine walked up to Elena, waited for Klaus to leave before grabbing Elena's hands, "Are you ready for this?"

"I think so. I just stand here until they show up and then run back inside to you. I can do that."

"I know, but I still don't like you being out in the open like this. I haven't felt this nervous in hundreds of years. I'm sorry, I should be reassuring you, not scaring you, but it just hit me that if this goes wrong…"

"Hey, that's not going to happen." Elena said, smiling confidently as Katherine, "I don't have to like Klaus, but I believe he will stop these things and I believe everyone here will help and you will keep me safe. I know that. You have to stay focused and not be worrying about me, because you'll be vulnerable and we can't have that now. There's no place I'd feel safer than with you, so I'm not scared of anything right now."

"That should've my speech, but I'll have to give you a proper thank you when this is all over. Whether it's here or in England, it will be a thank you that you will never forget." Katherine pulled Elena in close, giving her what she hoped wouldn't be their last kiss.

As they happily kissed in the middle of the open field, a cloud of smoke appeared a couple hundred feet away and just as quickly a swarm of hybrids began moving towards the two women.

Katherine grabbed Elena and had her inside the house before the hybrids could blink. She closed the door and watched as Klaus, Damon and Stefan converged on the demons, while Bonnie, Miranda and Esther conjured up a defensive spell, with Meredith and Alaric stood back waiting to fire the special darts at the demons.

When the first demon reached Klaus, it took a vicious swing at him, but he had moved away long before the blow came close to landing and he smiled and taunted the demons some more, causing more of them to lunge towards him.

Damon and Stefan did the same thing, hitting and running until the demons were spread out. It was then that Klaus called his hybrids into action and just like that battle was on.

Slowly but surely, the hybrids did their part, picking off one demon after another with the surprisingly well coordinated teamwork of friends and enemies working like a charm to disorient and destroy the strange looking demons.

Back inside the house, the girls all stood around, waiting and watching through the windows as the battle raged outside. Katherine enjoyed watching the fighting, but wished she was part of it, while Caroline sat down and sipped some wine with Rebekah standing close to Elena.

Rebekah turned in a flash as she heard the faintest of sounds behind her. She turned to Elena and yelled, "RUN!" as two demons burst through the side wall and into the room. After getting Elena out of the house, Katherine and Caroline grabbed Elena and pulled her to safety near the barn.

Rebekah turned to face the demons, hurling herself on top of one, grabbing it by the head and doing her best to snap its neck. When that failed, she began flailing her arms. Sending countless punches to its head, neck and chest, but again it was to no avail.

Finally, the demon began to fight back, grabbing Rebekah and tossing her to the ground. As Rebekah tried to get up, she looked over at Caroline and Katherine, but before she could move, she felt a sharp pain in her back, then moments later more pain in her leg and it just kept moving until her whole body ached.

Katherine jumped into action and lunged at the demon, knocking it to the ground while Caroline engaged the second demon hovering around. With both the demons preoccupied, Elena rushed over and knelt over Rebekah, who had spikes sticking out all over her back and legs. Each one was jagged and covered in some strange liquid, making it next to impossible for Elena to remove them. She winced as she saw and heard Rebekah writhing in pain beneath her. She got to her feet and rushed around to the front where the fighting was fast and furious. She looked around for someone familiar, but couldn't make out anyone in the tangled mess of demons, hybrids and vampires fighting in front of her.

Out of the corner of her eye she spotted Klaus impaling one demon, while one of his hybrids ripped it to shreds with its sharp teeth and deadly venom. As Klaus smiled at another demon being removed from the playing field, he rushed over to Elena in the blink of an eye, grabbing her and pulling her away from the fighting, "What are you doing? We are killing these things to save your life and you're out here making yourself a target? Are you stupid?"

"No I'm not, but Rebekah's in trouble." Elena countered, "They put some kind of spikes in her and I can't get them out. Katherine and Caroline are fighting them off, but they seem different than the other demons, like they are the leaders or something. We need to get Rebekah out of there or she's going to die."

"As sad as that is, you are the main priority here." Klaus said, doing his best to block out his emotions, "Rebekah understands this."

"I don't care." Elena yelled, "I am not leaving her like that. She doesn't deserve it and you know it."

Klaus shook his head at Elena's stubbornness, "Fine, but get back inside the house and do not move until someone comes to get you."

"Okay." Elena said, running inside the house and locking the door behind her.

Once Elena was safe, Klaus headed around back, looked over the situation before moving over to where his sister lie screaming on the ground, "Well, it looks you've got yourself into another unfortunate predicament." When Rebekah couldn't even trade insults with him, he knew it was a bit more serious than he'd imagined. He turned her over onto her side, took one look at the dozen or so spikes covering her body and for the first time in centuries he felt fear seeping into his thoughts.

He ran around the front, called two of his hybrids over and ran back around to where the others were still fighting. He jumped on the one Katherine was fighting and with the help of his hybrids they killed it in short order. They all jumped right in and helped Caroline finish off the last demon before Klaus rushed back over and knelt down beside Rebekah, "I didn't do all this for you to die on me. We've got an eternity to look forward to and it just wouldn't be the same without you doing what little sister's do, annoying their big brothers. I'll come see when this is over."

"How many demons are left?" Caroline asked, as she helped pull Rebekah back inside.

"More than half are dead, but there's still a few stragglers left, but they weren't near as deadly as were led to believe." Klaus said, before zipping back into the fray.

Meredith rushed over to Rebekah, grimaced as she saw the spikes sticking out of her, but remained calm as she leaned in close to her, "I have to get these spikes out of you now. It's going to hurt like hell, but there's no other way." Meredith looked up at Caroline, "Get her something to drink. The strongest alchohol you can find."

Elena stood beside Katherine, resisting the urge to rush over and comfort Rebekah, but that didn't keep her from empathizing with her, "I know you don't like her, but I hate seeing her like this."

"I know." Katherine said, holding Elena close, "It's not a pretty sight, but she's got people looking out for her and I'm sure she'll be okay."

"This just makes me realize how important every second we have in this world is." Elena said as she looked deep into Katherine's eyes, "That could be you lying there and I would be going crazy. If it was me, I'd be dead. Just like that. I couldn't withstand those things inside me. I'm just saying that I don't care what happens when this is over, I just want to be with you."

"You are going to be with me forever." Katherine said with a big smile, "I'm not leaving you with Klaus. You know that."

"I just don't want you to try something heroic to stop Klaus and end up getting killed. I just can't deal with that. You have to promise me you won't do anything when this is over and that goes for Damon and Stefan to. Even if Jeremy were safe, I'm not risking your life for anything."

"I can't control the Salvatore's, but I won't make things worse. I promise." Katherine said, happy to reassure Elena, "I agree that we're better off going with him for now and then take our time figuring out what to do next."

"Thank you. I needed to hear that." Elena said, hugging Katherine hard and tight. Her happy smile faded as she looked over at Rebekah lying on the floor, "I don't want to upset you, but I really need to go see her. I just want her to know that she's not alone. That's all."

Katherine smiled, "It's okay. Go ahead. I'm fine with it."

Elena gave Katherine a warm hug and then walked over and knelt down beside Rebekah, "Hey there. You're going to be okay. Don't give up."

Rebekah could barely manage a smile, but she did nod at Elena, "It takes a lot to kill one of us. It's not the spikes that hurt, it's whatever they put into my system. I just feel so tired and weak and helpless."

"Meredith has most of the spikes out now. She just went to get something from her car." Elena said, holding in her tears as best she could, "Do you need anything? Water? Wine? Anything?"

"No. I just need to sleep." Rebekah said, her voice barely registering.

"I don't think you should do that. You need to stay awake." Elena said, shaking Rebekah in an attempt to keep her conscious, "I don't know what's inside you, but you need to fight it. You can't lose consciousness. She'll be right back."

Meredith rushed in, sat down beside Rebekah, pulled out a large needle and promptly injected her with it in the thigh. She then removed the remaining two spikes and pulled Elena away from Rebekah, "This is the critical part right now. I gave her an antidote for the most powerful poisons I know of and I just hope it works. If not, she won't have much time left."

"What? Why? Can't you do anything else?" Elena pleaded, "She said she's tired and weak. I hate this. All because she was helping me. I don't want anyone else dying because of me."

"You can't think like that. She wanted to help and I know she wouldn't have it any other way." Meredith said as Elena broke down in tears.

Klaus walked in, saw Rebekah on the ground while Meredith was consoling Elena and slowly walked over to her. He grabbed her hand and held it tightly, "This isn't how it was supposed to end. You need to wake up. I'm never going to be the brother you deserve, but I'll make you one promise if you beat this thing. I won't stab you again. I know, that's not much, but it's something and you need to grab onto it and know that no matter what kind of fight we have, I will never do that to you again. You're not going to get a better off than that, now come on, wake up. I can't do this without my family. I won't."

Katherine walked over and Elena rushed into her arms, still in tears as they watched over Rebekah.

Damon and Stefan came into the room, surveyed the situation and moved towards Meredith. Stefan pulled her away from the others, "Is she going to be okay?"

"I don't know." Meredith said, "I've given her an antidote, but it doesn't seem to be working. It was all I had, but I have no idea what kind of poison they possess. If she doesn't respond shortly…"

Damon glanced over at Katherine holding Elena close and walked over and stood beside Caroline, "So what happened here?"

"We got jumped by two demons and Rebekah got hit pretty bad. I have to give her credit though, she saved Elena, but she might lose her life in the process."

"I should've been here." Damon snapped.

"There's nothing you could've done." Caroline said, "They popped up out of nowhere and Rebekah heard them first and she turned to attack and she got hit by both of them. I don't like her, but I don't like seeing anyone like that."

"It looks like Elena's taking it pretty hard."

Caroline looked over at Elena and sighed, "She cares about Rebekah a lot. I don't know if she can deal with another death. She deserves some good news for a change."

Rebekah slowly opened her eyes and squeezed Klaus' hands. Her vision was blurry, but she couldn't miss her brother looking back at her, "I heard everything you said you know and I'm holding you to it."

"Just this once I'll let you win, but don't get used to it." Klaus said, doing his best not to smile too much.

Meredith knelt down beside Rebekah, looked her over and smiled at her, "Are you sure you're okay?"

"I'm not dead so I'll take that as a good sign." Rebekah said softly.

"Yes, it's a very good sign." Meredith said with a big smile, "You need to rest and I'll get you some blood and you'll be back to normal in no time."

"Thank you for everything."

"Now that I know you're okay, it's time for me to leave. Don't worry sis, you can always come visit us." Klaus said as he got to his feet. He stood up and looked around the room, focusing his attention on Damon, "Well, I guess if you're in here, it means they're all dead."

"Yep, one threat down, one to go." Damon said with a smile.

"I'm not a threat, not unless you make me one." Klaus said calmly, "We had a deal and I expect everyone to honor it. Elena, are you ready?"

"Just let me say goodbye to everyone and then we'll go without any problems, but only after I know Jeremy is okay."

"He is." Klaus said, before motioning towards Elena, "Go ahead, say your goodbyes. I'll be waiting at your house, so don't be long." He nodded and walked over and knelt down beside his sister.

Elena walked over to Damon and Stefan, "I want to thank you both for helping out today. We couldn't have done it without you."

Damon shrugged, "Oh you probably could've, but in spite of everything, I didn't want to see you sacrificed to a bunch of demons."

"I'm grateful for that." Elena said with a smile, "I know you don't approve of me and Katherine, but I hope you accept that I'm happy and I'm where I want to be."

"I accept that you made your choice and yes I do want you to be happy and I'll leave it that." Damon said as Elena gave him a hug before he disappeared.

She moved to Stefan, smiled softly and gave him a big hug, "I want to thank you for everything you've done for me."

"You don't have to thank me." Stefan said with a hint of a smile, "I want you to be happy and I can see that you are and I will trust that Katherine keeps it that way."

Katherine slid in beside Elena, put her arm around her waist and smiled at Stefan, "Oh you don't have to worry about that. Because no matter where we are, I'll make sure Elena is happy."

Stefan nodded, "Okay then, well we both know that you can't stay with Klaus forever, so we'll be in touch as to how to get you back here as soon possible."

"No. I don't want to piss him off." Elena yelled, "Just make sure Jeremy is safe before you do anything."

Klaus flew back into the room and put his hand around Elena's neck, "All this conspiring is making me rethink things."

"We weren't doing anything." Elena said as she struggled to get free of Klaus' grip.

"Elena, I have ears and they work amazingly well, so don't lie, it's just annoying." Klaus scolded, while turning his attention to Damon and Stefan, "Now, since I don't feel like spending my life waiting for your merry band of friends to kill me, I've decided on a compromise."

After Klaus relaxed the grip on her neck, Elena moved back over into Katherine's arms, "What kind of compromise?"

"First, I want you to know that I don't have to do this, so you should take this as a once in a lifetime opportunity." Klaus said, "I've been in contact with my chief hybrid designer and he informed me of how much of Elena's blood I will need to complete my hybrid project. It just so happens that I could do this without needing Elena full time. So, I am proposing that Elena come to England for 2 months at which point she will be allowed to come back to this tiny little ghost town and live happily ever after for 2 full years. She will need to return with me for 2 month segments, once a year, for the next 5 years. Not a horrible price to pay when you consider the alternative. So, how does that sound?"

Elena looked at Katherine and then around to everyone in the room and one by one they nodded their approval, "If your serious then of course I agree. Not to stir the pot, but why?"

Klaus looked over at Rebekah, "You can thank my sister for this. She's hard to say no to when she's all wounded and such. But, it really is in my best interest to keep your friends off my back."

Elena smiled and held Katherine tightly, "Well, now that we've got that sorted out, I'm going to take Katherine home and we'll get ready to leave."

"That's what I like to hear." Klaus said with a big grin, "I'll have a car waiting outside your house and it'll take you to the airport when you're ready."

After Klaus disappeared, Elena held Katherine's hand at smiled at all her friends, "This might not be so bad. I've always wanted to travel, so we'll make the most of our time over there. I will miss you all, but it's not for long, so just keep an eye on Jeremy and I'll be back before you know it."

As her friends mobbed Elena, Katherine stepped aside and walked over to Rebekah. She knelt down beside her and attempted a smile, "You keep doing things that help Elena and I'm not sure how I should feel about. I guess in the end all that matters is that you risked your life to protect her and I can respect that. Well, I should get going, so I hope you recover soon."

Elena smiled at Rebekah and mouthed the words, 'thank you' to her and then took Katherine's hand and headed back to her car, ready to start a new chapter in their life together.

** The End**.

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed it.

I like to think of my stories as episodes of a TV show and this would've been a multi episode arc and maybe a mid season finale, but I don't see it as being over, that's why it's hard to end things like this. I see it picking up right where it left off with Elena/Katherine in England together and who knows what adventures they would get into over there.


End file.
